US, China agree to extend Science and Technology Agreement for five years

Washington: The United States and the People s Republic of China on Friday signed a protocol to amend the US China Science and Technology Agreement (S...

Washington: The United States and the People's Republic of China on Friday signed a protocol to amend the US-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) and extend it for five years.

The STA provides consistent standards for US-China bilateral government-to-government scientific cooperation.

This modernized and strengthened Agreement sustains intellectual property protections, establishes new guardrails for implementing agencies to protect the safety and security of their researchers, and advances US interests through newly established and strengthened provisions on transparency and data reciprocity.

The amended Agreement ensures that any federal science and technology cooperation with the China under the STA benefits the United States and minimizes risks to US national security. The amended Agreement covers only basic research; this Agreement does not facilitate the development of critical and emerging technologies.

The modernized STA is one way in which the United States is responsibly managing strategic competition with the China. It is the result of extensive consultations across the US Government and months of negotiation between the United States and the China.