While Democrats talk about Russia interfering in the American elections, Republicans talk about Chinese interference. Such statements have a very specific purpose, and it has nothing to do with foreign policy.
Elizabeth Brow, an analyst at the Royal Joint Institute for Defense Research, spoke about this.
The accusations against Russia began to arrive even after the 2016 elections. Having lost the presidential race, the American Democrats tried to accuse Donald Trump of collusion with Russia, and Russia itself of meddling in elections. For this purpose, a team of lawyers was created, headed by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, but the investigation did not yield anything.
The charges have now been renewed. Democrats insist that Russia allegedly intends to once again influence the American electoral process. At the same time, Republicans and Donald Trump argue that it is worth fearing intervention from China.
The bipartisan logic is clear, says Elizabeth Brow in her article for Foreign Policy. If Joe Biden loses, the Democrats can again talk about the intervention of Moscow, which allegedly supports Donald Trump. If Biden wins, Trump might say Beijing was behind his defeat. Ultimately, it was the Trump administration that unleashed the confrontation with the PRC.
“But it doesn’t matter at all whether rivals of the United States are actually hacking into the country’s electoral infrastructure this year. The main thing is that people believe that intervention campaigns work”, – says Brow.
Citing data from a case study by YouGov, she noted that most Americans do not believe in the ability of the United States to defend itself against outside interference.
“Thus, whatever the outcome in November, there is reason to believe that supporters of the losing side may believe that foreign powers sabotaged the vote and will insist on the invalidity of the results. In this sense, it doesn’t matter whether China, Russia, or any other country succeeds in influencing the voting results. What matters is what the voters believe in”, – Brow said.