US election: Vance-Walz clash sees Democrat saying ‘Trump should have come to China’

The two United States vice-presidential hopefuls squared off in a relatively civil debate on Tuesday night, with observers largely more impressed with Republican J.D. Vance’s performance compared with Democrat Tim Walz.

A nationwide poll conducted by CBS News, which hosted the debate in New York, gave Vance a slight edge as 42 per cent of those questioned said the Ohio senator had won compared with 41 per cent for Walz and 17 per cent calling it a tie.

The debate, their only head-to-head in this year’s election, largely focused on domestic issues such as gun control, immigration and the economy, but China and the Middle East were among the foreign policy issues debated.

Walz, the Minnesota governor who once worked as a teacher in China and later organised trips to the country for high school children, said he had “learned a lot” during his time there and his experience was “about trying to understand the world”.

“I would make the case that Donald Trump should have come on one of those trips with us. I guarantee you he wouldn’t be praising Xi Jinping about Covid, and I guarantee you he wouldn’t start a trade war that he ends up losing.”

Walz’s links to China have come under close scrutiny since Kamala Harris named him as her running mate.