The United States updated a decades-old science and technology agreement with China to reflect their growing rivalry for technological dominance.
The new agreement, signed on Friday after several months of negotiations, has a more limited scope and additional safeguards to minimize the risk to US national security.
The State Department indicated that the agreement maintains intellectual property protections, establishes new protective barriers for the security of researchers and “advances the interests of the United States through newly established and strengthened provisions on data transparency and reciprocity.”
The agreement covers only 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 crucial to economic strength and military supremacy.
The first agreement of this type was signed in January 1979, when both countries established diplomatic ties to counter the influence of the Soviet Union, and when China was lagging far behind in science and technology compared to the United States and other Western nations.
The most recent extension of the agreement occurred in 2018, and it was temporarily extended in 2023 and 2024 to allow for negotiations. Washington considered that the agreement did not reflect the change in relations between the United States and China or its emergence as a heavyweight in the area. The new agreement extends the cooperation for five years.
As the technology war between the two countries intensified, the United States banned exports of advanced chips to China and restricted American investments in certain technologies that could boost China’s military capabilities.
Cooperation in science and technology cooled at universities and research institutions after the introduction of a program dating back to President-elect Donald Trump’s first term to curb Chinese espionage. The program ended in 2022 after several failed legal prosecutions against researchers and concerns that it had led to racially charged legal actions.
Deborah Seligsohn, an associate professor of political science at Villanova University, said the new agreement would result in fewer government-to-government programs but, through its limited scope and stronger safeguards, would allow cooperation to be sustained “through a more difficult relationship.”
Earlier this year, Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said decades-long cooperation had seen the United States “provide all kinds of scientific and technical expertise to Chinese scientists, in what could be considered the largest ever deployment of scientific expertise.” and American technology in history.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., argued that the United States and the global 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 favors congressional oversight to ensure that projects covered by the agreement are consistent with American values and interests.
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