Harris says Trump 'sold us out' to China, slams his praise of Xi

Vice President Kamala Harris slammed her presidential rival Donald Trump for not protecting American interests against China, and criticized his public praise for Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the global pandemic.

“Under Donald Trump’s presidency, he ended up selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernize their military,” Harris said during a televised debate on Tuesday evening.

“Policy about China should be making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century,” Harris added, claiming that Trump “sold us out” during his time in office.

Criticism of China has become a bipartisan issue in Washington, with both sides competing to show how they will be tough on the world’s second-largest economy.

Trump sought to block countries from buying Huawei Technologies Co. equipment for 5G network and placed tariffs on more than $300 billion of Chinese goods during his presidency. President Joe Biden has largely kept those curbs in place, while rallying U.S. partners to limit China’s access to cutting-edge chips citing national security concerns.

Trump emphasized that the Biden administration had kept in place the tariffs he had placed on China, claiming this was because they generated too much revenue to give up.

The Republican indicated again that he’d further hike tariffs on China if elected in November, a policy Harris criticized as bad for American consumers. Their comments come amid “China Week” in the U.S. House as it votes on a swath of legislation clamping down on ties with Beijing.

Despite starting a trade war with China, Trump has at times shown a personal appreciation of Xi, who is China’s most-powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

“He actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID. Look at his tweet — ‘Thank you, President Xi. Exclamation point,’” Harris said. “We know that Xi was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origins of COVID.”

The debate gives Harris a chance to publicly flesh out her China policy after joining the Democratic ticket at the last minute. She’s widely expected to continue the Biden administration’s approach of managing ties through “intensive diplomacy.”

Hints of her China stances were sprinkled through her campaign’s policy website posted this week, including the line that “Vice President Harris will not tolerate unfair trade practices from China or any competitor that undermines American workers.”

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(With assistance from Michelle Jamrisko.)

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