The US has extended a historic science and technology agreement (STA) with China by six months, but now needs to renegotiate the deal to mollify concerns that it aids Beijing’s technological and military rise and fails to ensure a reciprocal research relationship.
Washington made a last-minute decision to temporarily renew the agreement, signed in 1979 after the countries normalised diplomatic relations, despite pressure from Republicans who want it scrapped.
“This short-term six-month extension will keep the agreement in force while we seek authority to undertake negotiations to amend and strengthen the terms of the STA. It does not commit the United States to a longer-term extension,” a State Department official told Reuters last week.
US seeks extension to controversial science agreement with China | Reuters