CNN China's signal dropped for around 30 seconds during the United States (U.S.) vice-presidential debate on Oct. 7 (Oct. 8 SGT), just as incumbent Vice-President Mike Pence started discussing the topic of China's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chinese censors stepped in during U.S. VP debate

The disruption occurred just as Pence said "China is to blame" while discussing the Chinese's government's handling of the pandemic, Newsweek reported.

The technical difficulty was noted by Globe And Mail's Beijing correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe, who tweeted a photo of his TV showing a sign that said "no signal, please stand by".

China censored Pence’s comments on China. Signal returned when Harris began talking again. pic.twitter.com/0VEMAqDA95

— Nathan VanderKlippe (@nvanderklippe) October 8, 2020

According to VanderKlippe, the signal went back to normal after Harris began speaking again.

Pence criticised China's handling of Covid-19

During the interruption, Pence said:

"China is to blame for the coronavirus. And President Trump is not happy about it. He's made that very clear, made it clear again today. China and the World Health Organisation did not play straight with American people."

The Australian Associated Press also reported that Chinese censors had apparently stepped in to block Pence's comments.

According to Newsweek, CNN China is a broadcasting channel that often gets interrupted by the Chinese censors.

The channel is not widely available in the country and is mostly found only in hotels, diplomatic compounds and residential areas where foreigners live.

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Top image via @nvanderklippe/Twitter