White House National Security adviser Robert O’Brien is accusing China of intending to interfere with upcoming U.S Presidential elections slated for November. According to him, hackers linked to Chinese government are intending to penetrate the elections infrastructure.
“They’d like to see the President lose. Face the Nation. China, like Russia, like Iran they’ve engaged in cyberattacks and phishing and that sort of thing with respect to our election infrastructure, with respect to websites and that sort of thing,” said O’Brian while on CBS.
These sentiments seems to compliment earlier ones made by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence which said China ‘has been expanding its influence efforts’. The office however didn’t directly accuse China of trying to meddle in upcoming election but it did say Russia was to undercut President’s Trump competitor Joe Biden.
This is not the first time such accusations are being leveled against China. Several times China has been accused of hacking U.S government entities, U.S companies and senior politicians. Nonetheless, China has always comes out strongly denying such type of accusations.
“The U.S. presidential election is an internal affair, we have no interest in interfering in it,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang back in April.
O’Brian says they have been encountering hackers trying to penetrate websites owned by Secretary of State Offices across United States. These offices are in charge of collecting data on Americans and administering elections at a local level. He cautions of dire consequences to those involved.
“It is a real concern and it’s not just Russia. There will be severe consequences for any country that attempts to interfere in our free and fair elections,” added O’Brian.
