How Washington Fuels China's Rise & Ensures America's Demise

On January 31, 1979, weeks after the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC, or China) established diplomatic relations, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and PRC ruler Deng Xiaoping signed the U.S.-China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement (STA), the first major agreement between the two governments.

Kissinger had somehow convinced the gullible Carter and DoD leaders that building up China would somehow counter the influence of the Soviet Union. It didn't really impact the Soviets and the empowering of China didn't end with the demise of the Soviet Union. 

During the 1980s and 1990 the U.S. made substantial efforts to integrate China into the global system and undermine U.S. manufacturing. The treasonous Barack Obama transferred even more advanced technology and money to China, including assisting China with the development of bio-weapons with which to target the U.S., and America's most advanced and secret military technology. 

Bill Clinton did his part by getting China into the World Trade Organization (WTO) even thought it didn't come close to meeting the requirements, and still doesn't. China then slowly weaponized the WTO against the U.S. and other nations. 

Just before the STA was to lapse on August 27, 2023, Team Biden extended the destructive agreement for six more months. While the White House pretends to take the threat from China seriously it works to undermine the U.S. and further empower China. China has paid the Biden crime family tens of millions of dollars and likely has plenty to blackmail Joe Biden, his brother and crackhead son, Hunter. 

The current U.S.-China STA is an umbrella agreement that governs U.S. government S&T work with China and is part of a broader S&T ecosystem of universities, firms, professional bodies, and nongovernmental organizations. The Department of State Office of S&T Cooperation, which negotiates and oversees U.S. STAs, says that STAs and related activities “strengthen international cooperation in
scientific areas aligned with American interests, ensure open data practices, promote reciprocity, extend U.S. norms and principles, and protect American intellectual property.”

The United States has 60 bilateral and multilateral STAs—including with the European Union (and separately with certain EU member states), Japan, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, and Canada—and over 2,000 sub-agreements. 

In reality, the STA with China is essentially is a one-way technology transfer agreement that ensures that China gets a large portion of America's most important technology for free. Technology not covered by the STA is simply stolen by China. China does allow a few American researchers into China but does not allow them access to anything important. 

According to the U.S. government, an estimated 42.5% of the international graduate students in the United States are from China. Many work on sensitive research projects and transfer technology back to China. All are required to follow the orders of China's military intelligence and are essentially spies. There are almost no American graduate students in China.

U.S.-China S&T activity increased in November 2009 with new agreements on joint projects in electric vehicles (EV), energy efficiency, renewable energy, coal, and shale gas, and the creation of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC), a ten-year research effort between the U.S. Department of Energy and China’s MOST. CERC involved over 1,000 participants from U.S. universities, national labs
and industry. It was responsible for China leap-frogging in green energy and its inevitable near-term domination of the EV market.

U.S. options regarding the U.S.-China STA (not mutually exclusive) include: a) renew the U.S.-China STA as is; b) renew the STA and modify sub-agreements; b) modify and renew the STA; c) significantly rework and renegotiate the STA; d) let the STA expire; e) shift focus to deepen STAs with Europe, Japan and others; and f) work with allies and partners to develop a common approach to S&T work and
with regard to China. Experts debate the extent to which canceling the STA would affect U.S.-China S&T ties, including sub-agreements and federally funded research.

Renegotiating the STA might or might not address specific concerns that Congress could address through legislation. It could allow Washington but also Beijing to set new terms. Congress might consider its preferred role in overseeing the U.S.-China STA and its negotiation. It is not a treaty requiring Senate ratification.

Section 1027 of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 (P.L. 107-314) required the President to create an interagency process and a repository for S&T agreements with China. Section 1207 directed the Department of State to track all protocols and, until Congress repealed the reporting provision in 2016, required the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce
and the Central Intelligence Agency to report to Congress biennially on how the U.S.-China STA benefits the PRC economy, military, and industrial base, including the role of technology transfer and compliance with U.S. export controls.

To date, these damning reports have not been public, and for good reason. Some that have been made public through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests shows that the required assessments simply aren't being done or are bogus. 

Congress might reconstitute STA reporting requirements, make such reporting public, hold hearings, require the executive branch to conduct an assessment, or conduct its own assessment to evaluate the benefits and costs of U.S. research with China performed under the STA, but it likely won't. 

China will continue to use America to conduct much of its R&D and then weaponize it against the U.S.