US-China science deal must address American national security concerns: senior State Department official

Amended pact dating to 1979 establishment of diplomatic relations must ensure ‘fewer opportunities’ for compromising activity, negotiator says

Insights shared at event where former top US diplomat Condoleezza Rice urges finding safe way to let in world’s best minds

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Former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice speaks at the State Department in Washington, DC, in 2008. Rice now directs the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 24 Jan 2024Updated: 8:20am, 24 Jan 2024

The future of a seminal US-China science deal depends on both sides agreeing on new stronger terms to address Washington’s national security concerns, a top government official negotiating the pact said, amid calls from American academics for its renewal.

Washington’s posture going into the talks was to bolster the US-China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement “to have it be more robust, to have the guardrails be more firm and more clear”, according to Jason Donovan, director of science and technology cooperation at the US State Department.

An amended STA must ensure “fewer opportunities” for any activity compromising US national interests, he said in response to a question from the Post at a National Science, Technology and Security Round-table meeting at Stanford University in California.

“If we are able to do that in negotiations, we will do so. If we’re unable to do that, we won’t do so,” Donovan added.

In a similar vein, Condoleezza Rice, a former US secretary of state and national security adviser, said in her keynote address at the event that “Chinese insistence on being able to marry their civilian and military capabilities” was problematic.