China expert says Beijing took advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to interfere with US elections

An expert in China affairs said the communist country capitalized on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to influence the U.S. elections. Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding said during a Nov. 10 appearance on The Epoch Times’ American Thought Leaders program: “We are in 2020, in the midst of a people’s war waged by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) around the world to destroy liberalism.”

Spalding said China wants a future where the world is dominated by authoritarian regimes, and the CCP realized decades ago that it needed to attach itself to the U.S. to obtain the trade, talent and capital to grow its economy.

“What the CCP wants in America is, essentially, this idea of a partnership between the corporate side of the U.S. and both political parties that enable profits for the wealthy, and suppress the interests of the working class,” Spalding explained.

The CCP took the first step to this ambition by making a deal with the U.S., which led to China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. This subsequently led to the destruction of the working class in America, Spalding said.

Then in early January 2020, Beijing found itself with its back against the wall. The phase one U.S.-China trade deal it had signed was threatening to make it modify its economy, which would’ve resulted in an upswing in domestic unemployment. But the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan presented China with an opportunity to turn its fortunes around. According to the retired general, the Chinese word for crisis consists of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.”

The CCP turned the COVID-19 pandemic into an opportunity to be ahead of the U.S.

The CCP saw the effects of the outbreak in Wuhan and realized that this was the chance China was waiting for to one-up its rival hegemon. The regime thus enabled the global spread of the coronavirus by allowing international air travel while shutting down domestic travel, Spalding said. It also amassed and hoarded medical supplies from around the world, which resulted in a global shortage.

It then ran a multi-faceted information campaign to cover up its role in causing the pandemic while trumpeting its handling of the outbreak. Some of these campaigns involved allegations of the coronavirus originating from the U.S. and Europe and calls to encourage lockdowns similar to those done in China.

China also utilized the World Health Organization (WHO) for its own ends, through WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Following pressure from Beijing, Tedros downplayed the risk of human-to-human transmission in the early stages. (Related: Chinese Communist subversion of the WHO undermined global pandemic response.)

Tedros has also refused WHO membership to Taiwan, which was lauded for its response to the pandemic. Taipei has been excluded from two World Health Assembly meetings this year alone: It was initially blocked from the first meeting in May and a subsequent one in November.

China is deeply rooted in the U.S. elections, even before the coronavirus pandemic

China also pushed the narrative that the U.S. under President Donald Trump did not do a good job in handling the pandemic, which gained significant traction before the November elections.

“When you add all of these things together, the actions by the CCP deliberately impacted the U.S. elections,” Spalding said. He added that the introduction of massive mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic was an effect of the CCP’s actions.

“Why did we have massive mail-in ballots? Because of the coronavirus. Why do we have the coronavirus? Because of the CCP. Why do they have this opportunity? Because we brought them into the WTO, because we [welcomed] them into the community of nations. It all comes together.”

Furthermore, Spalding noted that some digital machines that were used for voting had either some bit or software or hardware from China. He remarked: “This has been noted in study after study, that we have a challenge with both mail-in ballots and digital machinery – particularly [those] that have components from China.”

Back in August, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents intercepted almost 20,000 fake driver’s licenses that could possibly be used for vote fraud. The licenses were among more than 1,500 shipments, mostly coming from Hong Kong and China, seized by customs officers. The CBP’s Ralph Piccirilli noted that the fake IDs were mostly for college-age individuals, with some having the same photos but different names.

If China has the capability to fake American government documents, then it undoubtedly has the same capability to undertake a larger operation – such as interfering with elections – despite the ongoing pandemic.

Learn more about Chinese interference in the elections at VoteFraud.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com 1

WTO.org

APNews.com

TheEpochTimes.com 2