Amid US-China rivalry, a landmark science deal faces new scrutiny, World News

WASHINGTON — For over 40 years, a landmark agreement between the United States and China has yielded cooperation across a range of scientific and technical fields, a powerful sign that the rivals could set aside their disputes and work together.

Now with bilateral relations in their worst state in decades, a debate is underway within the US government about whether to let the US-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) expire later this year, three officials familiar with the discussions said.

With Antony Blinken in Beijing on the first visit by a secretary of state in five years and expectations low for any bilateral breakthrough, the debate over the oldest US-China bilateral cooperation accord mirrors a bigger question dividing policy makers: do the benefits to the US of engaging with China outweigh the risk of empowering a competitor who may play by different rules?

The agreement, signed when Beijing and Washington established diplomatic ties in 1979 and renewed about every five years since, has been hailed as a stabilising force for the countries’ relations, with collaboration in areas from atmospheric and agricultural science to basic research in physics and chemistry. It laid the foundation for a boom in academic and commercial exchanges.

Those exchanges helped China grow into a technology and military powerhouse, but concerns about Beijing’s theft of US scientific and commercial achievements have prompted questions about whether the agreement — set to expire on Aug 27 — should continue.

Proponents of renewing the STA argue that ending it would stifle academic and commercial cooperation.

While the dominant US view appears to be in favour of renewal, a growing contingent of officials and lawmakers believe cooperating on science and technology makes less sense given competition between the countries, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

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“Extending the Science and Technology Agreement between the US and China would only further jeopardise our research and intellectual property,” said Representative Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of a congressional select committee on China. “The administration must let this outdated agreement expire.”

The State Department declined to comment on “internal deliberations on negotiations.” The National Security Council also declined to comment.

China’s embassy in Washington said Chinese officials had approached the US a year ago to talk about the deal, which it said formed the basis for 40 years of “fruitful” cooperation.

“As far as we know, the US side is still conducting an internal review on the renewal of the agreement,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said, adding that both sides could consider adjustments to the original deal.

“It is hoped that the US side will expedite the internal review before the expiration of the agreement,” he said.

Renew, expire or renegotiate?

Inside the US government, including the State Department, which leads the negotiations, there are competing views about whether to renew the pact, let it expire or renegotiate to add safeguards against industrial espionage and require reciprocity in data exchanges, the officials said.

Given the state of US-China ties, trying to renegotiate could derail the agreement, they said.

US businesses have long complained about Chinese government policies that require technology transfer, and experts warn about state-sponsored theft of everything from Monsanto crop seeds to data about Nasa’s space shuttle designs.

The administration of President Joe Biden has sharpened the focus on technological competition.

“Technology will be the cutting-edge arena of global competition in the period ahead in the way nuclear missiles were the defining feature of the Cold War,” US Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell told a Hudson Institute forum in June, adding that the US “will not cede the high ground.”

Proponents of renewing the deal argue that without it, the US would lose valuable insight into China’s technical advances.

Xi Jinping tells Bill Gates he hopes US-China friendship will continue