The imminent expiration of the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement on August 27 presents the Biden administration with a critical opportunity to protect America's innovative edge from the Chinese Communist Party and to ensure continued American leadership in emerging technologies.
Though initially conceived with good intentions to foster bilateral cooperation, over time the agreement has become a conduit for Chinese malfeasance, siphoning off valuable U.S. intellectual property, technology, and research and development, and should be allowed to expire.
Consider just some of the ways U.S. taxpayer funds and R&D resources have been exploited to abet Beijing's relentless technology acquisition strategy under the false pretenses of the STA framework: More than a decade ago, NASA's engagement with China on sensitive aeronautics research and technology so alarmed Congress over potential military applications that they statutorily banned NASA from conducting such joint projects absent security clearance.
Defenders of the STA protest that the agreement still carries important symbolic and diplomatic weight, and serves as a useful general framework facilitating technological exchange.
In 2018, despite a sincere U.S. attempt to salvage the STA by adding a new intellectual property annex, the CCP's exploitative behavior persisted unchecked, prompting the State Department to conclude two years later that "The PRC ignores international norms and exploits the openness of the United States and other nations for its own benefit, harming the integrity and security of the international research enterprise."
Allowing the STA to lapse will deliver a strong diplomatic signal to Beijing that the era of accommodating CCP technology theft and bad faith dealings is over.
The door need not be shut permanently on future collaboration with Chinese scientists and researchers who share our aims of expanding human knowledge and who reject totalitarian technology ends.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/end-the-sta-stop-helping-china-steal/
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