Pence set to accuse China of trying to undermine Trump

WASHINGTON >> Vice President Mike Pence plans to accuse China today of trying to undermine President Donald Trump as the administration deploys tough new rhetoric over Chinese trade, economic, and foreign policies.

In a speech to the Hudson Institute, Pence will say China is using its power in “more proactive and coer- cive ways to interfere in the domestic policies and politics of the United States.”

“China wants a different American president,” Pence will say, according to excerpts of prepared remarks from his office.

Pence’s speech comes a week after the Republican president accused China during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council of interfering in American elections to help his Democratic rivals.

“Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election,” Trump said. “They do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade.” As proof, Trump later referenced a paid advertising insert in The Des Moines Register by Chinese governmentaffiliated entities.

Pence is set to charge that China is targeting “industries and states that would play an important role in the 2018 election” as it responds to Trump’s protectionist trade tariffs on China. “By one estimate, more than 80 percent of U.S. counties targeted by China voted for President Trump in 2016; now China wants to turn these voters against our administration,” Pence will say.

U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to boost Trump over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton through hacking and releasing sensitive documents and social media manipulation.

In his remarks, Pence will quote an assessment from the U.S. intelligence community that “China is targeting U.S., state and local governments and officials to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy. It’s using wedge issues, like trade tariffs, to advance Beijing’s political influence.”

Sounding the alarm, Pence will also warn other nations to be wary of doing business with China, condemning the Asian country’s “debt diplomacy” that allows it to draw developing nations into its orbit.

Pence will also warn American businesses to be vigilant against Chinese efforts to leverage access to their markets to modify corporate behavior to their liking.