Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: U.S. President Donald Trump alleges Chinese interference in the 2020 election, Chinese and Philippine personnel clash in the South China Sea, and the United States and China will reportedly hold talks on artificial intelligence in September.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: U.S. President Donald Trump alleges Chinese interference in the 2020 election, Chinese and Philippine personnel clash in the South China Sea, and the United States and China will reportedly hold talks on artificial intelligence in September.

Trump Accuses China of Election Interference

U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech last Thursday—in which he alleged foreign interference, particularly by China, in the 2020 election—was full of falsehoods. From the perspective of U.S.-China relations, however, what was striking was not the extremity of the claims about China, but the lack of any expectation that they should result in a tougher China policy.

If Trump genuinely believed that China had mounted a large-scale operation to subvert American democracy, one would expect a severe response. Instead, his second-term China policy has been consistently softer than either his own first administration or that of former U.S. President Joe Biden. Time and again, Trump’s actions have run counter to the threat he claims to have uncovered.

Trump released a slate of newly declassified intelligence documents to supposedly support his accusations. One of these dubiously claims that China used TikTok to collect extensive data on American voters. Yet Trump illegally delayed enforcement of the TikTok ban in order to negotiate a politically advantageous deal.

Many of Trump’s other claims pertain to Chinese cyberaggression, even as his administration slashed U.S. cybersecurity capabilities, especially for electoral security. Trump also personally approved the export of high-powered Nvidia chips to China.

This pattern extends well beyond Trump. Across U.S. right-wing politics,........

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