Beijing and Washington are making progress toward renewing the 45-year-old US-China Science and Technology Agreement, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, but each side may be considering a different timeline for announcing the deal.
A source in the US government said the administration of President Joe Biden would like to hold off the renewal until after Election Day – November 5 – while another source cited a recent trip to Washington by senior Chinese officials to suggest the agreement could be finalised before then.
Officially, the two sides say only that they are talking. The Chinese embassy in Washington said that “the two sides are maintaining communication” on the agreement and that “related information” would be released at an “appropriate time”.
The US State Department would only say that it “continues to hold productive conversations” with Beijing.
Signed in 1979 by US President Jimmy Carter and Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping – a landmark first pact between China and the United States following the normalisation of relations that January – the STA established a framework for government collaboration in scientific endeavours and paved the way for academic and corporate partnerships.
The agreement has been renewed every five years, most recently in 2018 during the administration of then-President Donald Trump.
