China, US renew science pact for 5 more years

中美续签科技合作协定，再延长五年

CHINA and the United States have inked a protocol to amend their U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) and extend it for an additional five years.

中国和美国已签署《关于修订和延长两国政府科学技术合作协定的议定书》，将《中美科技合作协定》延长五年。

The two countries penned the protocol Dec. 13, agreeing to extend the STA effective Aug. 27 this year, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology announced.

两国于12月13日签署了该合作协定，双方同意从今年8月27日起延长该合作协定，中国科技部宣布了这一消息。

First signed in 1979, the STA was usually renewed every five years, but its last five-year update was in August 2018 because opinions within the U.S. about the pact have been divided since last year. Due to this, China and the U.S. inked one six-month extension in August last year and another in February.

该协议首次签署于1979年，通常每五年续签一次，但由于美国国内对于该协议的看法自去年以来分歧较大，最后一次五年更新是在2018年8月。基于此，中美两国分别于去年8月和今年2月签署了两次六个月的延期协议。

The renewed agreement reflects the efforts of the Biden administration in pursuing a relatively balanced policy approach towards China, said Xiao He, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

续签后的协议反映了拜登政府在推动对华政策上较为平衡的努力，中国社会科学院的研究员肖河表示。

The scope of the STA has been adjusted and narrowed, focusing on foundational scientific cooperation between the two governments while alleviating concerns within the U.S. about potential threats to national security posed by the agreement, Xiao noted. The pact also keeps general economic ties with China in non-sensitive areas, Xiao pointed out.

肖河指出，协议的范围已被调整和缩小，聚焦于两国政府之间的基础性科学合作，同时缓解了美国对于该协议可能带来的国家安全威胁的担忧，协议还保持了与中国在非敏感领域的一般经济联系。

In June last year, 10 Republican members of the House of Representatives wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to scrap the STA, citing concerns over its impact on innovation development and security issues. However, U.S. academic and business professionals continued to support maintaining cooperative ties with China. Around one-third of U.S. research on telecommunications and computer science was made in collaboration with China between 2017 and 2021, while one-fifth of published environmental science research was done with Chinese scientists, according to global data analytics service provider Clarivate.

去年6月，10名共和党众议员曾致信美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯，要求取消该协定，理由是其可能对创新发展和安全问题产生不利影响。然而，美国的学术界和商界专业人士继续支持与中国保持合作关系。据全球数据分析服务提供商Clarivate的数据，在2017至2021年期间，约三分之一的美国电信和计算机科学研究是与中国合作进行的，而五分之一的发表的环境科学研究则与中国科学家共同完成。