China showed "greater willingness" to influence U.S. midterm elections in 2022, intel assessment says

Washington — China intensified its efforts to influence political processes in the United States during the 2022 midterm elections, according to a newly released declassified assessment, which suggested Beijing may perceive a growing benefit to exploiting divisions in American society.  

The 21-page assessment, released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said the Chinese government "tacitly approved efforts to try to influence a handful of midterm races involving members of both US political parties." The specific races were not identified in the report, which also said China believed Congress would maintain an "adversarial" view of Beijing regardless of which party was in power.  

The 2022 findings appear to mark a shift in Beijing's calculus regarding U.S. elections. A similar intelligence assessment released after the 2020 presidential election found that China "did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election," judging the risks of being caught meddling to be too great.