U.S. Seeks To Extend China Pact On Science.

"SINGAPORE -- The Biden administration is seeking a short-term extension to a landmark science and technology agreement with China despite opposition from Republican lawmakers who say Beijing has used the agreement to advance its security and military objectives.

The extension would keep the deal, which sets the rules for government-level cooperation on scientific research, in force for six more months and give the U.S. time "to undertake negotiations to amend and strengthen the terms," a State Department spokeswoman said Wednesday.

China's Foreign Ministry said it was willing to communicate closely with the U.S. on the issue and hoped both sides would "work together to promote an early renewal" of the agreement.

The agreement was the first that the U.S. and China signed after normalizing relations in 1979 and kicked off an era of scientific cooperation that produced breakthroughs in areas such as public health and clean energy, but it has come under increasing scrutiny as competition between the U.S. and China has intensified.

In June, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' select committee on China, and nine other Republican members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him not to renew the agreement before its expiration date on Aug. 27. The letter argued that the agreement was aiding China's military modernization by giving the country access to cutting-edge American research.

The State Department said it was "clear-eyed to the challenges" posed by Beijing and committed to safeguarding the interests of the American people.

Allowing the agreement to expire could accelerate a scientific decoupling that threatens American progress in strategically important areas, say many U.S.-based scientists.

Data from the London-based company Clarivate shows that collaborations with Chinese scientists accounted for significant percentages of U.S. research in areas such as nanoscience, telecommunications and semiconductors, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

Allowing the agreement to lapse would put nongovernmental cooperation at risk as China considers the agreement the basis for all other science cooperation with the U.S., including with academic and research institutions, according to Deborah Seligsohn, a former environment, science, technology and health counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing who teaches political science at Villanova University.

Mark Cohen, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley, said that the agreement was worth saving but needed to be changed to reflect current realities. "It needs to be updated to address changes in technology as well as our complex peer-to-peer science relationship with China," he said.

Seligsohn said that one potential addition to a renewed agreement would be language limiting scientific collaboration to peaceful uses, which the current agreement lacks.

This week, three Republican members of the House select committee on China proposed a bill that would require the secretary of state to give Congress 30 days' notice ahead of any new agreement to cooperate with China on science and technology.

One of the first successful collaborations carried out under the agreement was a 20-year joint study of fetal health that found that giving women small doses of folic acid before and during early pregnancy could prevent severe birth defects in the baby's brain and spine. The research led to a 35% drop in such birth defects in the U.S., as well as drops in other countries, the CDC has said." [1]

 

1. U.S. News: U.S. Seeks To Extend China Pact On Science. Sha Hua. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 25 Aug 2023: A.3.