China tried to hack into the phone of Trump, J.D. Vance, and top Trump campaign staffers

October 25, 2024 – WASHINGTON, D.C. the New York Times is reporting that Chinese government hackers tried to tap telephones used by former President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R), and Trump's top campaign staffers.

It has not been released on whether or not they were successful in breaching Trump and Vance's phone. The Times that they were successful in hacking the phones of at least two Trump campaign staffers.

They also targeted U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York).

Law enforcement has not released whether or not they targeted Vice President Kamala Harris (D) or Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz (D); but a number of media outlets have subsequently reported that the Harris campaign was similarly targeted

The attack was discovered by Verizon, who informed the FBI. Senior staffers have been given new phones as a result of this ongoing situation.

Members of the media were also targeted.

"The U.S. government is investigating the unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People's Republic of China," the FBI said in a joint release with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

"The presidential elections are the United States' domestic affairs. China has no intention to and will not interfere in the U.S. election," Chinese spokesman Liu Pengyu said. "We hope that the U.S. side will not make accusations."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/10/25/trump-vance-phone-hack-china/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert

When President Trump was President, he changed American foreign policy on China to include harsher restrictions on Chinese intelligence collection efforts and tariffs on products that he believed China was dumping in the U.S. President Joseph R. Biden (D) largely kept Trump's get tough on China foreign policies in place.

China has the world's second largest economy behind the United States. The two nations have been in an arms race for a number of years now with both seeking superiority in new weapons technology especially in hypersonics.

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