WE SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS YEARS AGO: We must end the experiment of science cooperation with China.

The Biden administration’s decision to request a six-month extension of the expiring U.S.-China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement (STA) follows a noisy campaign by U.S. scientists urging renewal of the landmark 1979 accord.

To hear the scientists tell it, the STA has contributed to nearly every significant scientific breakthrough over the last 40 years.

In reality, the agreement codifies the disadvantageous terms of the immediate post-recognition U.S.-China relationship, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how China uses global science cooperation and sends a contradictory message about the seriousness with which the administration is approaching U.S.-China economic security issues.

Signed by the Carter administration as the first major bilateral agreement following U.S. diplomatic recognition of China, the STA reflects the geopolitical reality of the late 1970s. As scholars like Dr. Michael Pillsbury, writing in “The Hundred Year Marathon,” have noted, the U.S. provided extraordinary technological transfer, both civilian and military, to China in the years immediately following diplomatic recognition, with the goal of accelerating Chinese development as a counterweight to the Soviet Union.

Needless to say, the geopolitical dynamics of U.S.-China relations have dramatically altered in the decades since.

Indeed.