Officials from both nations said Friday that the United States and China have extended a decades-old pact on research and technology collaboration, reducing its scope and incorporating measures to satisfy national security concerns.
The first agreement between the two nations following the normalization of diplomatic ties was the Science and Technology Agreement, which was initially signed in 1979. Historically, it was extended approximately every five years, but in recent years, as China has emerged as a formidable technical foe, U.S. politicians have voiced worries about it.
Before expiring on August 27 of this year, the deal, which was set to expire in 2023, was given two six-month extensions. Negotiations to extend it had been ongoing for months.
The five-year extension of the “modernized and strengthened” agreement was announced by the State Department on Friday. According to the statement, the agreement “advances U.S. interests through newly established and strengthened provisions on transparency and data reciprocity,” maintains intellectual property rights, and creates additional safeguards for researchers’ safety and security.
According to the department, the deal does not support the development of critical and emerging technologies and only supports fundamental research.
Citing worries that these technologies would support China’s military development, the Biden administration has placed export restrictions on sophisticated semiconductor chips and limited investment in other militarily important areas in China, such artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology also acknowledged the agreement’s renewal in a brief statement on Friday, though it gave no specifics.
Proponents of the agreement contended that its renewal would impede academic interaction between the two largest economies in the world as well as jeopardize government-to-government cooperation in critical areas like public health and climate change.
The Trump administration’s China Initiative, a national security initiative designed to combat intellectual property theft at research institutes and colleges, has already stifled collaboration in science and technology.
Following a series of unsuccessful prosecutions, the program, which has forced some well-known Chinese scholars to depart the United States, was terminated in 2022.
Asian American advocacy organizations said that the program, which House Democrats are trying to resurrect, unjustly singled out ethnic Chinese scientists.
