The point at which former ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, called entrepreneur, Vivek Ramaswamy, "scum" was when the third Republican debate officially descended from bad-tempered to downright vicious.

He had just mocked her daughter for being a long-time user of Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok.

After tearing strips off each other, one notable absentee from Republican debate emerged relatively unscathed comes via ChinaTechNews.com.