Hollowing out of tech pact symptomatic of US' problematic approach to China relations

That China and the United States on Friday signed a protocol to amend and extend the Agreement between the United States and China on Cooperation in Science and Technology for an additional five years, effective from Aug 27, 2024, is encouraging news.

On Jan 31, 1979, then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and the 39th US president Jimmy Carter signed the agreement during Deng's visit to the US, and it has been renewed approximately every five years since then, paving the way for sci-tech exchanges between the two countries. But the document was only extended for six months in August last year, and again in February this year, in spite of China's openness to renewing it for the usual five years, exposing the resistance bilateral sci-tech exchanges face from the US China hawks.

Therefore, it is to be hoped that the renewing of the agreement is not just symbolic of the US administration's claims that it wants to cooperate where it can, rather than signifying a genuine commitment to cooperating with China in the high-tech field.