China forcefully denied interfering in U.S. elections Thursday night after President Donald Trump announced the release of newly declassified intelligence documents that he said detail years of Chinese efforts to influence American elections and undermine confidence in the nation’s electoral system.

During his nationally televised address, Trump said one of the central categories of declassified material focuses on what he described as extensive efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in U.S. elections over the past decade. According to the president, the intelligence files allege that China amassed a vast database of American voter information and concluded that Beijing strongly opposed his reelection ahead of the 2020 election because of concerns over his approach to the presidency.

Following the speech, the Chinese Embassy in Washington responded in a statement provided to CBS News, rejecting the allegations. The statement came after Trump’s address also discussed alleged election-related activities involving other foreign countries and broader concerns about election security.

“China has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in others’ internal affairs,” the statement reportedly read. “The U.S. election is an internal matter of the U.S. Its outcome is determined by the votes of the American people. China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.”

China has previously faced accusations from several democratic nations of attempting to influence their political systems. In Canada, the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) task force announced in 2025 that it had uncovered “coordinated and malicious activity” tied to accounts linked to the Chinese government during the federal election that brought longtime China business associate Mark Carney to the office of prime minister. Australia has also experienced similar concerns, including a 2017 scandal involving a senior senator who accepted money from a billionaire connected to the Chinese regime before publicly adopting positions viewed as favorable to Beijing.

In his remarks Thursday, Trump alleged that “the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history — resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files.”

Although the president’s address covered a range of election security concerns, including vulnerabilities in voting systems and alleged intelligence failures, he singled out China as the most significant foreign threat outlined in the newly released records.

Trump said the intelligence documents indicate that China’s access to election-related data extended into approximately 18 states, giving Beijing access to “sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote, and engage in other nefarious activities.”

“This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare,” he observed. “The intelligence even shows that China assigned a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project.”

The president also referenced another intelligence document released by the White House that he said concluded China’s leadership actively sought to prevent his return to office.

“They did not want and they just didn’t want it, they fought like hell not to have it, Donald Trump to win,” he said, stating that CIA documents recorded that China would “leverage all domestic and foreign elements that were opposed to the U.S. president in an effort to reduce the U.S. president’s votes and make him resign or lose the election.”

Trump further alleged that some of the declassified records show “intelligence agencies worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling.” He said he would direct senior intelligence and law enforcement officials to “investigate how and why such crucial info was hidden, to fire those involved in the cover-up and to press charges.”