During Deng Xiaoping’s historic visit to the US on January 31, 1979, then vice president and US president Jimmy Carter co-signed the historic China-US Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement in Washington. “We have just finished a significant project, but this is just the beginning,” Deng stated during the signing ceremony. The agreement was among the first intergovernmental agreements that the two nations signed after their diplomatic relations were established, and it is noteworthy because this year commemorates the 45th anniversary of such connections.
But more recently, Washington has increased its repression and sanctions against China in areas like science and technology, and some prominent US politicians have openly opposed extending or renewing the deal, which has made collaboration more difficult. President Xi Jinping has continuously emphasized such bilateral cooperation on the other side of the Pacific. In Seattle, during his 2015 visit to the US, Xi had meetings and discussions with executives from US and Chinese technology companies. At a reception hosted by amicable organizations in San Francisco in November, Xi shook hands and said hello to Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, and Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple.
Xi made the point that the two parties should cooperate to foster mutually beneficial collaboration and should work together in fields like science and technology, artificial intelligence, and other related fields during their summit with US President Joe Biden in San Francisco. Xi said, “Stifling China’s technical advancement is nothing more than an attempt to restrict China’s excellent development and deny the Chinese people their right to development. Foreign Minister Wang Yi informed reporters after the summit that the two parties “agreed to start consultations” on extending the accord.
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