U.S. President Donald Trump stated on the 16th (local time) that China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and illegally obtained a massive amount of voter data.
In his address to the nation that day, President Trump explained, "This was compiled by the excellent people at the White House's Government Transparency Task Force and the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, and I have personally reviewed these findings with the support of the heads of the top intelligence agencies," while releasing the related findings via the White House website.
He claimed that the findings "show that starting from the 2020 election period and continuing over several years, the People's Republic of China carried out what is considered the largest election data breach in history, and as a result, China illegally obtained 220 million U.S. voter files."
President Trump added that the files contained voters' "names, addresses, phone numbers, party affiliations, and sensitive data necessary for voter registration and other immoral activities."
He further criticized the U.S. intelligence community, stating that they were aware of this in the past but "kept the information secret and hid it," adding, "They did not inform me, who was president, or anyone else."
"I am declassifying a series of U.S. intelligence community assessments and other reports," President Trump emphasized, adding, "These reports prove that our government and all of its machinery are extremely exposed to attacks."
He also stated, "As one assessment notes, we judge that at least Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as other U.S. adversaries and non-state actors, have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure."
Meanwhile, U.S. media outlets including The New York Times and CNN reported through real-time fact-checks that the voter files allegedly obtained by China were already public records and that no evidence has been found to support the manipulation of actual election results.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)