Just two months ago, President Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, strolled together through a garden of the secretive leadership compound in the heart of Beijing, past rows of bright flowers and leafy plants.
The U.S. president toasted Mr. Xi as “my friend” at a state banquet during his visit. He declared that he had received a “magnificent welcome like none other” that had helped smooth the way to “fantastic trade deals.”
The stage was set, Mr. Trump said, for Mr. Xi to make a reciprocal state visit to Washington in late September.
But in a prime-time speech on Thursday night, Mr. Trump struck an overtly hostile note, accusing China of carrying out “the largest compromise of election data in history.”
Mr. Trump said he was releasing declassified documents that showed China had interfered in the election, though the actual material failed to reveal any new or potent information about Beijing’s efforts.
And U.S. intelligence assessments said there was no evidence China did anything to affect the outcome of the 2020 vote.
