As the battle between Donald Trump and Joe Biden intensifies, Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China are reportedly waging a battle of their own over America’s 2020 presidential election.

As reported by AP, William Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in a statement on Friday that U.S. Intelligence officials believe Russia is using a variety of methods to “denigrate” Biden and bolster Trump.

Conversely, China has intensified its criticism of Trump.

“We assess that China prefers that President Trump does not win reelection,” Evanina said in the statement.

While the statement from the country’s counterintelligence chief is sure to fire up TDS-riddled Congressional Democrats who still insist Trump “colluded” with Russia in 2016, Evanina said “many foreign actors” express “a preference” in U.S. presidential elections.

“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia and Iran.”

Evanina provided several example of actions undertaken by “Kremlin-linked actors,” including:

“For example, pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.”

Evanina said China views Trump as “unpredictable,” and as such has been attempting to expand its influence efforts ahead of the November election in an effort to shape U.S. policy and pressure political figures it sees as against Beijing — principally, Donald Trump.

No doubt that continuing tariffs imposed on China by Trump, his harsh criticism of Beijing’s recent crackdown on Hong Kong, and his strong condemnation of Beijing over its handling of COVID are primarily responsible for the Communists’ desire to help show him the door in November. Evanina said China will continue to weigh its options.

“Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current administration’s COVID-19 response, closure of China’s Houston consulate and actions on other issues.”

Incidentally, Trump continues to refer to COVID-19 as the “China Virus” — irritating both China and its principal benefactor in the United States, the Democrat Party.

I called the politicization of the China Virus by the Radical Left Democrats a Hoax, not the China Virus itself. Everybody knows this except for the Fake and very Corrupt Media!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2020

The Biden campaign predictably put its spin on Evanina’s statement on Friday, as reported by CNN, of course, in a transparent effort to make “Trump-Russia” appear much more ominous than “Biden-China.”

Biden’s campaign advisers have already discussed Evanina’s assessment, according to one person familiar with the discussions. The team has specifically focused on the semantics of the statement as it relates to the former vice president, noting that Russia is unambiguously looking to “denigrate” Biden while China simply “prefers” a Trump defeat.

Wait — semantics? And who’s “denigrating” whom?

According to my trusty Merriam-Webster, “semantics” refers to “the study of meanings,” and “denigrate” means to “attack the reputation of,” or “deny the importance of validity of.”

Perhaps this quote about Trump and tariffs on China from “The People’s Daily,” the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, can help Team Biden understand how much Beijing “prefers” Trump loses.

“From the time of its first trade provocations until now, capricious behavior has become the norm from America. It not only wears away and squanders the country’s reputation, but it also allows China to see more clearly the face of the Trump administration, one that is rude, unreasonable, selfish and headstrong.”

“Rude, unreasonable, selfish, and headstrong.” Pretty sure that was a “denigrating” blast.

Perhaps, Team Biden, China prefers your guy over Trump because of statements like this, made by Biden during a 2019 campaign stop as he mocked Trump over his tough trade position on China:

“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us. They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the east, I mean the west.”

Call me crazy, but if anything, China’s preference of Joe Biden over Donald Trump amounts to a compliment to Trump, and a slap in the face to a guy who half the time can’t remember what state he’s in.