Hollowing out of tech pact symptomatic of US' problematic approach to China relations: China Daily editorial

That China and the United States on Friday signed a protocol to amend and extend the Agreement between the United States and China on Cooperation in Science and Technology for an additional five years, effective from Aug 27, 2024, is encouraging news.

On Jan 31, 1979, then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and the 39th US president Jimmy Carter signed the agreement during Deng's visit to the US, and it has been renewed approximately every five years since then, paving the way for sci-tech exchanges between the two countries. But the document was only extended for six months in August last year, and again in February this year, in spite of China's openness to renewing it for the usual five years, exposing the resistance bilateral sci-tech exchanges face from the US China hawks.

Therefore, it is to be hoped that the renewing of the agreement is not just symbolic of the US administration's claims that it wants to cooperate where it can, rather than signifying a genuine commitment to cooperating with China in the high-tech field.

According to a Reuters' report on Friday, the Joe Biden administration is intending to empower companies such as Google and Microsoft to act as gatekeepers worldwide for highly sought-after access to AI chips. Under the scheme, to be released as soon as this month, these US companies would have to comply with strict requirements, including reporting key information to the US government and blocking Chinese access to chips used for artificial intelligence applications.

The new rules, as observers say, indicate that despite its stated claim that it does not seek the decoupling of the US from China, the Biden administration is scrambling to do just that in the chip sector in its waning days in office.

Although Beijing has repeatedly reiterated the importance of Washington developing a correct perception of China's development and discarding its zero-sum, Cold War mentality, in an interview with the media on Friday, the outgoing US ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, said he spends 80 percent of his time on competition with Beijing and 20 percent on engagement, calling it the right balance.

Many issues between the two countries are attributable to the Biden administration sticking to such a "balanced" approach in dealing with China relations. But that approach has not thwarted China's high-tech development, nor has it been separated from the world economy. It has also been harmful to some US companies, which have not benefited as they should from the development of China over the past four years.

It was also on Friday that US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the media the US will not rule out sanctions on Chinese banks citing their alleged involvement in dealing with Russia over the Ukraine crisis. That's a typical example how the Biden administration tries to resolve a self-made issue by casually severing the hard-earned cooperative bonds between China and the US. That also appears to Beijing to be another attempt of Washington to try and decouple China's financial system from the world.

That serves to reinforce that under the Biden administration the US has been squandering tremendous amounts of time and resources of both sides to seek cooperation just so it can ruin or squander it in the name of competition and confrontation overnight.

China's foreign policy, including its policy toward the US, is consistent. No matter what changes happen in the US, China will always be committed to developing Sino-US relations based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. Stable Sino-US relations are in line with not only the actual needs of the two nations, but also the trend of the times, and the general expectations of the international community.

The incoming US administration should bear in mind the big picture of Sino-US relations, and properly handle the issues between the two countries, so as to stabilize and improve the relationship. Against the backdrop of the current complex and turbulent international situation, China and the US jointly exploring the right way to get along can inject more certainty and positive momentum into world peace and development.