Clock ticks down for China-US science deal amid tech theft fears

The White House has a few weeks left to decide whether to extend the life of a 44-year-old cooperation agreement

Non-renewal could hamper efforts to find common ground between the two countries, analysts say

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Deng Xiaoping and Jimmy Carter signed the agreement on cooperation in science and technology in 1979. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 9:00am, 12 Aug 2023Updated: 3:49pm, 12 Aug 2023

The White House is in a fix and has less than a month to make a decision.

Just a few weeks remain for it to decide whether it will renew a landmark science and technology agreement signed four decades ago by then US president Jimmy Carter and Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

The US-China Science and Technology Agreement, which came into effect in 1979, is renewed every five years and will automatically expire on August 27 unless the administration takes action to keep it alive.

The agreement laid out the terms for government-to-government cooperation in science, opening the way for academic and corporate interactions.

But some US lawmakers are warning against an extension, invoking fears of intellectual property theft and unintended benefits to the Chinese military.

“It should come as no surprise that [China] will exploit civilian research partnerships for military purposes to the greatest extent possible,” Congressman Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House select committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said in a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, arguing against renewal.