Image source, Getty Images

In July, the Trump Administration ramped up its confrontation with Beijing, ordering the Chinese consulate in Houston to close over concerns about economic espionage.

It's the latest step in a downward spiral in relations between the dueling economic powers, which have sunk to the lowest level in decades.

The BBC's State Department correspondent Barbara Plett Usher takes a look at the motivations - and potential consequences - of this US-China face-off.

Read her full analysis here.

The moderator asks Harris: "What is your definition of the role of American leadership in 2020?"

She starts with an anecdote Biden told her, saying that foreign diplomacy is really just about personal relationships.

"You gotta keep your word to your friends. People who have stood with you, you gotta stand with them."

She attacks Trump for "taking the word of Vladimir Putin over our friends in the intelligence community", and calls the US less safe for having pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.

"He pulled us out and made America less safe," she says, calling it a deal among America's "friends".

Pence says the US kept its word to Israel, by moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and takes credit for Nato contributing more money for joint defenses than under the Obama administration.

Isis had captured a region as big as Pennsylvania, he says, referring to the crucial swing state, and adds that the terrorist group has now been practically wiped off the map.

He refers to the death of US aid worker Kayla Mueller, whose parents are in the audience tonight, and says she may not have died in Syria if Trump had been president when she was captured.

Reality Check

Kamala Harris said: “Joe Biden who was responsible alongside President Obama for the Affordable Care Act, which brought healthcare to over 20 million people.”

That’s true, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation,, external a US health charity.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed into law in 2010 under the Obama administration, and by 2016, nearly 20 million more people had healthcare coverage.

Ritu Prasad
BBC News writer, Florida

OK, they're debating a number of things (both on topic and not) at the moment but let's backtrack to a key topic for US voters: healthcare.

Trump has touted his steady dismantling of President Obama's Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which brought coverage to millions of Americans. But a decade on, Obamacare isn't all that unpopular nationwide.

In fact, Trump has promised to protect its most popular provision: that insurers cannot deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions (like diabetes, pregnancy).

But at the same time, in June, his administration requested the nation’s top court axe the legislation entirely - a move that could see up to 20 million lose health coverage.

Pence shoots back: "Lost the trade war with China? Joe Biden never fought it."

"Joe Biden has been a cheerleader for communist China," during his tenure in Washington, he claims.

The section we're on now is the fundamental US relationship with China - adversaries or friends?

"China is to blame for the coronavirus," says Pence. "And President Trump is not happy about it, he's made that very clear."

Harris is asked the same question about whether the US and China are enemies.

Trump's stance on China has "resulted in the loss of American lives, American jobs, and America's standing in the world," says Harris.

The discussion turns to foreign policy more broadly, with Harris accusing the administration of turning away from friends and embracing dictators.

Image source, Getty Images

Another presidential election cycle, another debate stage - but this time, we can't forget it's all happening in the middle of a pandemic.

Sure, there's plexiglass and a good 12ft (3m) between the candidates, a renewed insistence on masks in the audience and general social distancing - but is it enough?

Some critics say no, and that it's not worth it either, especially given the outbreak in the White House.

Presidential historians have also pointed out that there's precedent for a remote debate. In 1960, John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon had their third debate while in studios across the country from each other.

The moderator's questions is ostensibly about climate change, but the candidates quickly turn to something else. Pence begins by saying America doesn't need "a massive $2tn Green New Deal that would impose mandates on American businesses and families" because it will cost jobs.

Harris seizes on the comment to turn the discussion and hit Trump on jobs.

"The president's trade war with China - you lost that trade war. You lost it," she says, arguing that America lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs and farmers have gone bankrupt.

"There are estimates that by the end of the term of this administration they will have lost more jobs than almost any other presidential administration and the American people know what I'm talking about."

She points out many Americans don't know how they'll make rent.

Pence argues instead that Biden's been a "cheerleader for communist China" and hasn't done enough for US manufacturing jobs.

Harris is up now. She points out that her home state of California is burning. In the Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes are raging and there's flooding in the midwest.

"This administration took the word science off the website," Harris says looking at Pence. "We have seen a pattern with this administration and that is they don't believe in science."

She says Biden will deal with climate change as well as create jobs.

Image source, Getty Images

As forest fires blaze in western states and a new hurricane yet again lopoms on the southern coast of America, Trump caused controversy by questioning the science of climate change.

'It'll start getting cooler. You just watch... I don't think science knows, actually," he said at a recent wildfire briefing in California.

We have taken a look at what he has said and done on environmental issues.

Read more:

What is Trump's record on the environment?

Pence gets the first stab at this question: Does he believe that man-made climate change has made wildfires and hurrianes worse?

Pence says he's proud of the administration's record on the environment and conservation and he says that air is historically clean.

He says Trump has "made a commitment" to conservation. with regards to climate change: "The climate is changing. The issue is what's the cause and what do we do about it?"

Trump says we'll continue to listen to science, Pence promises, but he warns Biden-Harris would go back to the Paris Climate Accord and hurt the US economy with their focus on clean energy.

Trump-Pence, meanwhile will "always put American workers and American jobs first".

Pence and Harris disagree about whether Biden will raise taxes, and the tone gets a little more testy.

Harris says Biden would not raise taxes on anyone who earns less than $400,000 a year.

She accuses the Trump administration of riding on the coat-tails of successes brought by the Obama-Biden administration. Biden "was responsible for the Recovery Act that brought America back," after the 2008 housing crisis, Harris says. "And now the Trump-Pence administration wants to take credit... for the economy they had at the beginning of their term."

Biden will not end fracking, she says, but Pence disputes this.

Image source, Reuters

Pence returns to a familiar line of attack: "On day one, Joe Biden's gonna raise your taxes."

He says that while Covid has battered the economy, "we've already added back 11.6 million jobs".

He says this is because the president has "unleashed American energy, fought for free trade, and ... saved 50 million jobs through the paycheck protection programme."

Pence says Biden and Kamala Harris want to raise taxes and "bury our economy under the green new deal", and would also "abolish fossil fuels and ban fracking", which he says would cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

Image source, Reuters

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

"The American public has a right to know who is influencing the president's decisions," says Harris.

She did a more effective job hitting Trump on his $400m personal debt than Biden did last week.

It's not the taxes that Americans might care about, it's his large debt.

Likewise, Pence had a smoother response, defending Trump as a businessman, not a politician, with an added swipe at Biden's near 50 years in public office.

Tara McKelvey
BBC News, Washington

That’s what people in Middle America want to know – especially those who are known as “the mods”, or moderate conservatives.

Appalled by Trump, they may still vote for him - if they like what they see in Pence.

By walking purposefully on stage and speaking in a deep, confident baritone about the way that he, “having led the coronavirus task force”, as he put it, helped save people’s lives, he’s trying to convey a presidential air and win these undecided voters over for the Trump-Pence ticket.

Reality Check

Kamala Harris has claimed that over 30 million people have had to file for unemployment in the last few months.

That’s true. Unemployment insurance claims have topped 30 million since the start of the outbreak in February.

The numbers claims have dropped in recent weeks, and around 12 million are continuing claims.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance totalled 837,000 for the week ending 26 September, the US Labor Department said.

The third topic is the economy. Would raising taxes put the US recovery at risk?

Harris answers that Joe Biden thinks you measure the strength of the economy on the strength of the US worker and the US family. Donald Trump, she says, measures it based on how rich people are.

That's why he passed a tax bill benefiting the 1%, she says, "leading to a two trillion dollar deficit".

Harris says Biden will repeal that bill on Day 1, and invest in clean energy, renewable energy.

"There was a time our country believed in science and invested in development," she says, pledging a return.

The moderator asks each candidate whether candidates should release their health records.

Harris says she supports transparency of medical records - as well as tax records, deftly turning the question to a tricky spot for Pence. Trump is the first president in modern history to not release his tax records, and Harris points to recent reports in the New York Times, showing Trump has paid little to no taxes over the past two decades.

Pence says those reports are untrue, and says Trump is responsible for boosting the economy during his presidency. With skill, he parries back to point out that Trump was a private citizen, while Biden spent decades as a political insider.

The debate started with Kamala Harris accusing Mike Pence and the Trump administration for not doing enough to save American lives from Covid-19.

Here's what our voters thought about their exchange.

Jim Sullivan, Trump voter: Kamala Harris said Trump called Covid a hoax but there's plenty of documentation against that. It was a novel virus, not well-known to us, and in the early stages Trump did what he could with what he had available to him. If we had a Biden-Harris administration, they would be in the same situation.

Akayla Sellers, Biden voter: I agree with Kamala Harris’ words. The Trump administration has made poor decisions that have cost deaths of many people, especially black Americans. Lots of poor decision making.

Shloka Ananthanarayanan, Biden voter: We cannot just look at the US, we have to look at other countries to see they have done a much better job. Why are we still seeing 25% of our population succumbing to this virus? Whatever decisions were made were made poorly.

Gordon Kou, undecided voter: The Trump administration has done some things right. There were a lot of things that have gone right. Any administration has places where they are gonna fail. Right now it’s easy to point out “we should have this and that,” but when the virus is so novel you can’t foresee everything.

Read more about our voters.

Reality Check

A little earlier Vice-President Mike Pence defended the US government's response to the pandemic, claiming that President Trump “suspended all travel from China” in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, which he says helped save hundreds of thousands of lives.

That's not right. While, the US did issue a travel ban on China - thousands of people were exempt.

Mr Trump issued an order on 31 January which stopped foreign nationals who had been in China in the previous two weeks from entering the US, which came into effect on 2 February.

But the order has exemptions for US citizens, legal residents, and non-citizen relatives with close ties. Flight data analysed by the New York Times shows 40,000 people arrived in the US directly from China in the two months after President Trump's restrictions.

Moderator Susan Page points out to each candidate that they will each be the vice-president to the oldest US president in history. Pence is asked if he has ever had a conversation with Trump about his health.

The vice-president spent his answer vowing that a vaccine will be released soon, and tells Harris to "please stop undermining confidence in a vaccine". Minute earlier Harris said she will only take a vaccine when health experts say it safe and not when Donald Trump says it is.

Harris says that she and Biden were both raised to believe in the "value and the dignity of public service".