China’s Ministry of Science and Technology announced on Dec. 13 that a deal had been struck with the United States to revise their science and technology agreement and extend it by five years (retroactive to Aug. 27). It’s good that the two sides could find a way to sustain the deal at a moment of political upheaval in America, where people are bracing for a new and unpredictable administration under Donald Trump. The agreement represents a bit of good news for the health and sustainability of the bilateral relationship going forward.
China and the U.S. normalized diplomatic relations on Jan. 1, 1979. From Jan. 28 to Feb. 5 that year, Deng Xiaoping paid a high-profile visit to the U.S., which actually declared to the rest of the world the start of a new period in China’s reform and opening-up process. The visit was historic: The two countries signed a series of important papers, including the sci-tech and cultural exchange agreements. The former was signed personally by Deng and then by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. It is the only agreement to have been signed by the two countries’ leaders.
As an umbrella agreement, it stipulates the purpose and principles of scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges between the two governments. It also supports openness in science and encourages the two countries’ governments, colleges and research institutions to collaborate in such fields as agriculture, energy, public health, the environment, space, earth sciences, atmospheric studies, marine science, nuclear security and other areas. In addition, it lays out a vision for management, education and exchanges, and suggests ways to provide convenience.
Both countries set up science and technology cooperation committees and agreed to take turns hosting a meeting every other year in the counterpart country. The agreement was to be valid for five years and was renewable. It had been renewed multiple times as if August 2023 and played a tremendous role in promoting bilateral scientific and technological cooperation.
It has been an essential document in bilateral relations, providing a foundation and a path for developing detailed principles for cooperation on a range of projects in specific fields. Those details would be determined in a series of ancillary documents signed by specific institutions. Under this framework, the two countries have seen the creation of numerous interagency agreements, specific project agreements and appendices.
Renewal didn’t come easy
The sci-tech agreement should have been renewed last year, but went into default for a year owing to resistance by some Republican members of the U.S. Congress. In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June last year, the Republican chairman of the House select committee on strategic competition between the United States and the Communist Party of China, together with and nine colleagues, expressed opposition to renewing the agreement, claiming that any “research partnership” organized under it could develop technologies that would later be used against the United States. Moreover, they said, China continues to practice a form of military-civil fusion and “will continue to look for opportunities to exploit partnerships organized under the [agreement] to advance its military objectives to the greatest extent possible” to undermine American sovereignty. They even cited the balloon that drifted into U.S. airspace from China to support their claims.
However, real-life practice over the past 45 years proves that the sci-tech agreement has greatly promoted scientific and technological cooperation between the countries, and both sides have benefited from it. Many scientists have appealed for its renewal. Today’s China is a lot stronger and more advanced than the country 45 years ago. There can be no doubt that the recent move to revise and extend the agreement will be good for both parties.
Openness is essential
During the presidency, of Joe Biden the United States has not relaxed its efforts to suppress Chinese high technology — a fact that is glaringly obvious in the semiconductor field. The U.S. enacted the CHIPS Act，which is targeted primarily at China, sanctioning more than 130 Chinese businesses. Now AI has become the cutting-edge field. However, U.S. sanctions of Chinese companies have hurt American businesses, which is like “killing 1,000 enemies while losing 800 of your own soldiers.” Science and technology have never thrived in self-isolation, but only through mutual learning and inspiration.
We have always said that cooperation benefits both China and the U.S. and that fighting hurts both. This also applies to sci-tech. The renewed agreement is narrower in scope after revisions, and it contains additional assurances designed to reduce risks for U.S. national security as much as possible (according to the U.S. side).
Yet the renewal is good after all, because it preserves contacts and exchanges between the two countries’ scientific and technological communities. In this sense, it is a positive, welcome development in China-U.S. relations.
