American scientists are concerned about the active curtailment of scientific ties with China

The campaign to reduce scientific contact with China, gaining momentum in the United States, could be the most serious obstacle to scientific and technological progress in the United States itself. China is the largest scientific partner of the USA. According to some experts, now is not the time to break up with him.

The decline in scientific contacts between the United States and China, which began several years ago, is gaining momentum. Recallthat after one of the leading American chemists, Charles Lieber, was caught in 2020 in the criminal transfer of information to China, the US authorities began to carefully investigate the activities of Chinese scientists in the United States, the connections of American scientific and research centers with China, introducing restrictions, explained concern for national security. It soon became a worldwide trend. Concern about the cooperation of local scientific and educational organizations has previously been expressed by the authorities of various countries, from Britain to Netherlands. Some universities, for example Cambridgehave taken steps to reduce their ties with China.

In the United States, however, things may be moving towards an almost complete rupture of scientific ties.

American lawmakers, in particular, are already calling for not extending the agreement on scientific and technological cooperation, signed back in 1979 by the then leaders of the two countries, Deng Xiaoping and Jimmy Carter.

And if until now scientists have not reacted too actively to all these initiatives, now, as reports The Wall Street Journal, the situation has changed. Many experts believe that the timing for such a gap, when Chinese scientists are making perhaps their most significant contribution to scientific progress, is especially poorly chosen, and this gap threatens to slow down American scientific progress in key areas such as biotechnology, telecommunications, green energy. etc.

Experts acknowledge that the United States remains the most powerful scientific superpower in the world. Nevertheless, according to the British research company Clarivate, more than 40% of all scientific achievements of American scientists (measured by the number of high-quality scientific publications) are made in collaboration with foreign colleagues. And, judging by the same Clarivate, China and the United States are each other’s main partners in scientific cooperation.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which has exclusively reviewed and analyzed the Clarivate data, in some strategic areas, such as nanotechnology, the United States is more dependent on China than vice versa.

This is confirmed by Deborah Seligson of Villanova University, who previously served as an environmental, science, technology and health advisor at the US Embassy in Beijing. “It seems that… people holding the highest positions (in the country.— “b”) have a very backward understanding of who benefits from cooperation with China,” she notes.

More than a dozen American scientists interviewed by the newspaper spoke of the fruitfulness of collaboration with Chinese labs, which provide a range of important resources, including, for example, large groups of graduate students, huge and often unique datasets, and state-of-the-art equipment. According to them, Chinese scientists are increasingly offering the most innovative ideas and approaches to solving scientific problems.

At the same time, there is evidence that the scale of the threat to US national interests and security posed by the unlimited cooperation of Chinese and American scientists is exaggerated.

In any case, two of the largest investigations into potential spying for China (they are conducted by the Department of Justice and the National Institutes of Health) so far, according to the newspaper, have not revealed any serious violations.

Viktor Buk