WASHINGTON - The United States and China on Friday inked an agreement to extend and amend a decades-old deal to collaborate on science and technology research, which had expired in August.
The signing of the new deal by the Biden administration in the “lame duck” period before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 came in spite of strong opposition from leading Republicans in Congress.
The Science and Technology Agreement, or STA, allows for sharing of science and technology research and was the first accord signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 amid the two countries’ Cold War-era rapprochement.
The deal governs how universities and other advanced research institutions in the United States and China can share findings or even collaborate. But it was allowed to lapse on Aug. 27 amid concerns from U.S. officials and lawmakers amid a growing rivalry with China.
The extension signed Friday extends the arrangements for five years backdated to Aug. 27, meaning that Trump will have left office by the time another extension is required.
However, following months of negotiations between U.S. and Chinese diplomats, the new deal narrows the scope of any research sharing.
The narrowing “ensures that any federal science and technology cooperation … benefits the United States and minimizes risks to U.S. national security,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
Amid concerns about sharing advanced technology with potential military uses, such as artificial intelligence, the amended deal also “covers only basic research” and “does not facilitate the development of critical and emerging technologies” the statement adds.
Leading Republican lawmakers had earlier this year expressed concerns that the sharing arrangement was being exploited by Beijing to fast track its military modernization and expansion.
Rep. John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan who serves as chairman of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said in a June 12 letter that Beijing “leveraged the STA to advance its military objectives and will do so again.”
On Thursday, hours before the deal was signed, Moolenaar wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticizing the deal and urging for him to “immediately suspend” the efforts, according to a copy of the letter provided to Radio Free Asia.
An extension of the deal was “a clear attempt to tie the hands of the incoming administration and deny them the opportunity to either leave the agreement or negotiate a better deal for the American people,” he wrote.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.