Republican lawmakers on Tuesday urged the U.S. State Department not to renew a decades-old U.S-China agreement on scientific cooperation, arguing that Beijing would seek to use it to help its military.
- The deal, signed when Beijing and Washington established diplomatic ties in 1979 and renewed about every five years since, has resulted in cooperation in areas from atmospheric and agricultural science to basic research in physics and chemistry.
Concerns about China’s growing military prowess and theft of U.S. scientific and commercial achievements have prompted questions about whether the Science and Technology Agreement (STA) set to expire on Aug. 27 should continue.