Criticising the Donald Trump administration over his trade policy with regards to China, US Vice President Kamala Harris said that the former US President invited trade wars and sold American chips to China to help them improve and modernise the military.
During the presidential debate conducted by ABC News, Harris said that the US' policy with regards to China should be to win the competition for the 21st century, which she stressed means focussing on relationships with allies of the US, focusing on investing in American-based technology.
In response to a question on whether Americans can afford higher prices on tariffs, Kamala Harris said, "The Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit, one of the highest we have ever seen in the history of America. He invited trade wars. You want to talk about his deal with China, what he ended up doing under Donald Trump's presidency. He ended up selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernize their military."
"Basically, sold us out when a policy about China should be in making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century, which means focusing on the details of what that requires, focusing on relationships with our allies, focusing on investing in American-based technology so that we win the race on AI, on quantum computing, focusing on what we need to do support America's workforce so that we don't end up having on the short end of the stick in terms of workers rights," she added.
Slamming former US President, Harris said that Trump thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping despite knowing that Xi was responsible for lacking and not giving transparency regarding the origins of COVID.
"But, what Donald Trump did, let's talk about this with COVID. He actually thanked President Xi for what he did with COVID. Look at his tweet, Thank you Mr Xi! When we know Xi was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origins of COVID," Harris said.