John Bolton says China among countries that may try to meddle in US elections

US officials are concerned that not only Russia but also China, Iran and North Korea will try to meddle in this fall’s midterm elections, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday.

“Well, I can say definitively that it’s a sufficient national security concern about Chinese meddling, Iranian meddling and North Korean meddling that we’re taking steps to try and prevent it,” Bolton said on ABC News’ This Week when asked about a tweet by US President Donald Trump saying that “all the fools” are focused on election meddling by Russia alone. “So all four of these countries, really.”

Bolton said elections are not the only potential targets for hostile international hackers, and he cited a “whole range of vulnerable systems” in both the government and the private sector.

“What we want is not war in cyberspace, we want peace in cyberspace,” he said. “And to do that, I think you need to establish structures of deterrence so that our adversaries who have conducted cyber operations against us or who are contemplating it come to understand they will pay a much higher price if they do that than if they simply refrain.”

Bolton is currently in Israel. He is set to head to Geneva and Ukraine for talks on Russia, North Korea and Syria.