Republicans on the Select Committee on the CCP as well as Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), chair of the House Republican Conference, are urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken not to renew an agreement between the U.S. and China that provides for scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries.
The agreement, concluded under President Jimmy Carter, is set to expire on August 27 of this year. Republicans argue that President Joe Biden’s foreign-policy priorities are all wrong, as he is pursuing a thaw with China and a nuclear deal with Iran while relations are fraying with Israel, a major U.S. ally. The administration recently cut science and technology cooperation with Israeli entities in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights in what critics are calling a “boycott.”
“It should come as no surprise that the PRC will exploit civilian research partnerships for military purposes to the greatest extent possible. . . . The PRC uses academic researchers, industrial espionage, forced technology transfers, and other tactics to gain an edge in critical technologies, which in turn fuels the People Liberation Army’s modernization,” wrote the group of ten representatives, which also includes Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), the subcommittee’s chair.
The group cited several examples of science and technology collaboration under the agreement that may have been used to subvert American sovereignty. The members of Congress pointed to a 2018 project organized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and China’s Meteorological Administration to launch balloons to study the atmosphere. “A few years later, the PRC used similar balloon technology to surveil U.S. military sites on U.S. territory,” explained the representatives.
Additionally, the U.S. and China are collaborating on agriculture, with over a dozen projects still active. “Those projects include technologies with clear dual-use applications, such as developing techniques for analyzing satellite and drone imagery for irrigation management,” the members of Congress note.
According to the Republicans, China does not hide its practice of military-civil fusion and may continue to act against American interests by means of the agreement.
“The United States must stop fueling its own destruction,” the letter explains. “Letting [the agreement] expire is a good first step.”