During the presidential debate hosted by ABC News on Tuesday evening in the USA, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris clashed over their China policy.

Trump defended his recent announcements to increase trade tariffs, including blanket tariffs of 10 to 20 percent and additional tariffs of 60 to 100 percent on China.

“After 75 years, other countries are finally going to pay us back for everything we have done for the world, and the tariffs are going to be significant,” the former president said, adding that his administration had taken in “billions and billions of dollars” from China.

He also pointed out that the Biden-Harris administration has maintained most of the Trump administration’s tariffs against China.

“They never lifted the tariffs because it was so much money. They can’t do that, that would destroy everything they set out to do,” he said.

In addition to maintaining most of Trump’s tariffs, the Biden administration also increased tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese goods in May, including semiconductors and electric vehicles.

When asked about his planned tariff increases, Trump downplayed concerns that the measure would lead to higher prices for consumers.

“What will happen and who will have the higher prices is China and all the countries that have ripped us off for years.”

Meanwhile, Harris used her time in the debate to argue that the Trump administration had been too weak toward China.

“Let’s be clear that the Trump administration has created a trade deficit that is one of the highest we have ever seen in American history,” Harris said, adding that he has “invoked trade wars.”

“Under Donald Trump’s presidency, he ended up selling American chips to China to help the country improve and modernize its military,” she said, in an apparent reference to the current administration’s efforts to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors through policies such as the CHIPS and Science Act.

“(He) has essentially betrayed us, when policy toward China should be aimed at ensuring that the United States of America wins the competition of the 21st century,” Harris said.

“To do that, we need to focus on relationships with our allies, focus on investing in American technologies so we can win the race, on artificial intelligence, on quantum computing, and focus on what we need to do to support the American workforce.”

Economists and policy experts have already told CNBC that Trump’s economic policy toward China in his second term is likely to focus on high trade tariffs. Harris, on the other hand, is likely to focus more on targeted restrictions coordinated with U.S. allies.