US updates a science and technology pact with China to reflect growing rivalry and security threats
WASHINGTON — The US has updated a decades-old science and technology agreement China reflect their growing rivalry for technological dominance. The new agreement, signed on Friday after many months of negotiations, has a more limited scope and additional safeguards to minimize the risk to national security.
The State Department said the agreement supports intellectual property protection, establishes new guardrails to protect the safety and security of researchers and “advances U.S. interests through newly established and strengthened provisions on data transparency and reciprocity.”
It only covers basic research and does not facilitate the development of critical and emerging technologies, the department said. This includes technologies related to artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which are considered critical to economic strength and military supremacy.
The first such agreement was signed in January 1979 when the two countries established diplomatic ties to counter Soviet influence and when China was seriously lagging behind the US and other Western countries in science and technology.
The agreement was last extended in 2018 and was given temporary extensions last year and this year to allow for negotiations. Washington believed that the agreement did not reflect the shift in US-China relations and China’s rise as a heavyweight in this area. The new agreement extends the collaboration for five years.
As the technology war between the two countries has escalated, so has the US banned the export of advanced chips to China and limited US investment in certain technologies that could enhance China’s military capabilities. Cooperation in science and technology cooled at universities and research institutions after a Trump-era program was introduced to curb Chinese espionage. The program was ended in 2022 after multiple failed prosecutions of researchers and over concerns that it had fueled racial profiling.
Deborah Seligsohn, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, said the new agreement would lead to fewer programs between governments, but its limited scope and stronger safeguards would allow cooperation “through a more difficult relationship.”
Earlier this year, Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, said the decades-long cooperation had resulted in the U.S. providing “all types of scientific and technical knowledge to Chinese scientists, which would amount to the largest outpouring of American scientific and technological expertise.” in history.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York, argued that the U.S. and the world community have also benefited from research collaborations that have “prevented disease, reduced pollution and deepened our understanding of Earth’s history.”
But Meeks said he supported congressional oversight to ensure that projects under the agreement would be consistent with American values and interests.