The News
The US and China have renewed a landmark science and technology cooperation agreement that lapsed earlier this year, after reworking the pact for an age of great power competition.
The renegotiated agreement sets out terms for basic research cooperation between the two countries, while adding new guardrails to reduce the chance of national security risks. It does not cover research on critical or emerging technologies, the US State Department said in a statement.
The agreement has symbolic weight as the first major bilateral deal inked by Beijing and Washington after the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979. Its supporters credit it with allowing research that has reduced birth defects, created better vaccines, and limited air pollution.
SIGNALS
Renewal weeks before Trump’s inauguration sparks Republican ire
The Biden administration’s decision to renew the deal has sparked outrage from Republicans, who have said the decision should have been left for the incoming Trump administration. Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House select committee on China, called the announcement “a clear attempt to tie the hands of the incoming administration,” Reuters reported. Republican congressman Andy Barr said the agreement had allowed for “the greatest outpouring of American scientific and technology expertise in history.” The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While many expect the president-elect to take a more confrontational approach to Beijing, a Crisis Group researcher argued that Donald Trump was more conciliatory toward Xi Jinping in his first term than tends to be remembered.
Chinese scientists welcome the pact’s renewal
Chinese researchers welcomed the renewal of the deal, with one telling Nature that they were “relieved” to see the pact extended for another five years. Li Zheng of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations argued that as China has caught up to the US’s level of scientific development, Washington has become increasingly suspicious about cooperation. Even so, Li called for the two countries to deepen their collaboration in non-sensitive areas such as fighting climate change and developing vaccines. One Chinese commentator expressed his frustration with US wariness about collaborating with Chinese researchers, saying: “If you insist on building a ‘small yard with a high fence,’ the result can only be ’sitting in a well and looking at the sky.’”
US researchers defend tie-up with China despite Washington’s suspicions
Despite the prevailing anti-China sentiment in Washington, many American scientists support the agreement’s renewal, arguing that it has allowed US researchers to benefit from collaborations with Chinese counterparts. “It is in the United States’ clear self-interest” to preserve the agreement, one expert argued, noting that many important science and technology breakthroughs can be linked directly to the deal. The US and China remain each other’s main scientific collaborators, and Chinese researchers are especially important to the US in fields such as nanoscience and telecommunications. But with several Chinese researchers having faced accusations of espionage, an increasing number of scientists fear that collaboration is no longer worth it.