US President Donald Trump declassified documents he says show Chinese interference in US elections, renewing his sharp criticism of election security despite assessments from US intelligence agencies concluding there is no evidence Beijing influenced the 2020 election that Trump lost.

A speech by Trump, delivered during prime time Thursday evening and lasting 25 minutes, underscored his efforts to spotlight election security and his insistence it is a central political issue ahead of the midterm elections scheduled for November, in which Republicans will seek to defend their slim majority in Congress.

Trump used his remarks to again pressure Republicans in Congress to pass legislation imposing new voter ID and citizenship requirements, despite reliable, strong, and long-standing results indicating US election fraud is rare. The bill has stalled in the Senate amid strong opposition from Democrats.

Trump said the declassified documents would reveal "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure." But much of them showed the opposite, or had nothing to do with US election infrastructure at all.

Trump's speech came at a politically critical moment for him and the Republicans, as his popularity has declined due to the unpopular war with Iran and rising energy prices.

Trump briefly referenced the war at the start, saying the United States is "achieving great victories," then listed a series of domestic achievements, including tax cuts and his tough stance on immigration, before moving to the topic of election security.

The president said he was declassifying sensitive information showing that China illegally obtained 220 million files of American voters, including names, addresses, and other data.

He asserted that members of US intelligence agencies deliberately concealed information about the scope of such Chinese activities.

An unclassified US intelligence assessment released in 2021 concluded there were no indications that any foreign entity attempted or succeeded in altering "any technical aspect" of the voting process in the 2020 presidential election, including voter registration, ballots, and results.

The report also found Chinese efforts dating back to at least 2008 to collect information on American voters, public opinion, political parties, candidates, and senior government officials, likely intended to use this information to predict election outcomes.

Two informed sources said the American voter data obtained by China was not secret, as political consultants routinely purchase voter files and cannot manipulate them.

Sources told Reuters before Trump's speech that some White House officials expressed concern that releasing information related to China could be misleading.

China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the speech. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said before Trump's speech, "China has never and will never interfere in US presidential elections."

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