US, China renew scientific cooperation deal

The signing is part of an effort to stabilize relations just weeks before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to slap huge tariffs on Chinese imports. The agreement, which dates back to 1979, had been renewed every five years for decades — including during Trump's first term — until last year, when diplomatic relations between the two countries were at record low. Tensions soared that year over an alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over US airspace, a meeting between Taiwan's leader and the US House speaker, and American military aid for Taipei. But the agreement was nonetheless extended twice by six months until renegotiations could start. The protocol "has new provisions" including on data reciprocity, which resulted from months of negotiations, a US senior administration official told journalists on condition of anonymity. The push to renew came even as the US attempts to wean itself from its dependence on Chinese semiconductors and wages battle against state hackings by Beijing. The new agreement strengthens provisions on safety and dispute resolution, as well as contains provisions on protecting intellectual property, the administration official said.

It also contains an exit clause in the event of noncompliance, and excludes cooperation in the fields of sensitive or emerging technologies.

The US restricts technology exports to China, particularly semiconductors, as it attempts to strengthen its own domestic output. Taken together, the revisions "create the most robust" national security guard rails of any government-to-government scientific cooperation with China, the US official said...While the US and China are fiercely competitive, they have found reason to cooperate in several broad areas, including scientific research, climate change and trafficking of fentanyl, the synthetic drug wreaking havoc in America.

Beijing and Washington have also reestablished direct military-to-military communication, which US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping supported during their last meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru's capital Lima in mid-November Scientific cooperation "is part of the overall broader competitive relationship we have with the PRC," the US official said, using the acronym for the People's Republic of China. "Within that relationship there is scope for limited cooperation in areas that advance US interests," the official added, such as oceanography, seismology, meteorology, and even agriculture and health, including vaccines.

Trump has repeatedly claimed, without proof, that the coronavirus pandemic originated from a virus that leaked from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan — something Beijing firmly denies