一位高级政府官员称,特朗普政府正在解密迄今为止尚未证实的情报,这表明中国向非国家行为者提供了悬赏,以袭击阿富汗的美军。
这位官员说,唐纳德·特朗普总统已获悉未经证实的情报。
Axios在周三首次报道了情报。
中国外交部发言人王文斌周四否认这一指控,称其为“对中国的污蔑”,完全是胡说八道,是“假新闻”。
解密之际,特朗普政府试图在总统任期的最后几个星期内对中国施加压力。
这位官员说,美国国家安全顾问罗伯特·奥布赖恩(Robert O'Brien)口头向总统介绍了有关情报的信息,情报还包括在12月17日给特朗普的通报中。
这位官员说,美国不同的政府机构正在努力证实最初的情报。
美国政府对这种未经证实的情报采取了截然不同的方法,将其解密并确认它正在努力对其进行确认,与之相比,白宫的强烈反对则是在夏季,《纽约时报》报道说,特朗普曾接受关于情报评估的简报。俄罗斯一直在这样做-悬赏美国驻阿富汗军队。
当时,特朗普将报告视为“骗局”而予以驳斥,白宫新闻秘书凯里·麦肯尼(Kayleigh McEnany)批评《泰晤士报》,并淡化了未经证实的基本情报。
奥巴马政府没有像现在关于俄罗斯的报道那样退缩,而是利用情报更加公开地追踪中国,特朗普将其描绘成比俄罗斯更大的敌人。
US investigating unconfirmed intel that China offered bounties on American troops
The Trump administration is declassifying intelligence, so far unconfirmed, that indicates China offered bounties to non-state actors to attack American soldiers in Afghanistan, according to a senior administration official.
President Donald Trump has been briefed about the uncorroborated intelligence, the official said.
Axios first reported on the intelligence on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, on Thursday denied the accusation, calling it a "smear and slander against China" that was "completely nonsense" and "fake news."
U.S. national security adviser Robert O'Brien verbally briefed the president about the intelligence, which was also included in a briefing for Trump on Dec. 17, according to the official.
The administration has taken a strikingly different approach to this uncorroborated intelligence, declassifying it and confirming it was working to confirm it, compared with the White House's strong pushback when The New York Times reported over the summer that Trump had been briefed on an intelligence assessment that Russia had been doing the same -- offering bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Instead of now pushing back, as it did in the case of the report about Russia, the administration is using the intelligence to more publicly go after China, which Trump has portrayed as a greater foe than Russia.