At UNSC, Don accuses China of poll meddling

New York, Sept. 26: US President Donald Trump accused China of seeking to meddle in the November 6 US congressional elections on Wednesday, saying Beijing did not want his Republican Party to do well because of his pugnacious stance on trade.

“China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November. Against my administration,” Trump told a UN Security Council meeting whose ostensible subject was nonproliferation of weapons

Mr Trump, chairing the Council for the first time since becoming US President, did not provide any evidence for his allegation, which China immediately rejected during the same meeting.

“We did not and will not interfere in any country’s domestic affairs. We refuse to accept any unwarranted accusations against China,” the Chinese government’s top diplomat Wang Yi told the Council.

Trump also used the session of mass destruction. ■ ■ to defend the US withdrawal in May from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran, hint at progress in US efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear program, and to criticize Iran and Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar alAssad in the country’s war, now in its eighth year.

“The Syrian regime’s butchery is enabled by Russia and Iran,” Trump said.

Trump’s focus on China and his allegation of election meddling came as a surprise during a formal meeting around the Security Council’s horseshoe table that was expected to concentrate on the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

“They do not want me or us to win because I am the first President ever to challenge China on trade and we are winning on trade, we are winning at every level. We don’t want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election,” said Trump, who is attending the U. N.’ s annual gathering of world leaders.

Mr Trump himself is not up for re- election until 2020 but November’s voting will decide whether his Republican Party can keep control of the U. S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Some opinion polls show that the Democratic Party could make a strong showing, notably in the House.

The United States and China are embroiled in a trade war, sparked by Trump’s accusations that China has long sought to steal U. S. intellectual property, limit access to its own market and unfairly subsidize state- owned companies.

In the latest salvo, U. S. tariffs on $ 200 billion worth of Chinese goods and retaliatory taxes by Beijing on $ 60 billion worth of U. S. products kicked in on Monday, unnerving global financial markets.