As tensions between the U.S. and China worsen, it’s not just trade and technology that are suffering. Washington’s fears of espionage and giving rivals an edge in strategic research have made science the latest casualty of geopolitics. Even the 45-year-old U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, the first to be signed after relations between the two countries were normalized, In a difficult situation.
The deterioration of relations between the United States and China is hindering scientific cooperation, New Working Paper It’s from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper looks at three indicators: the movement of STEM trainees between the US and China, how often scientists from one country use the research output of other countries, and scientist productivity.
According to the working paper, between 2016 and 2019, the likelihood of Chinese graduates attending a doctoral program in the United States fell by 16%. The paper also reports a sharp decline in Chinese citations to US scientific papers, but not in US citations to Chinese research papers. Finally, rising anti-China sentiment has led to a decline in the productivity of Chinese scientists in the United States by up to 6%.
The paper was authored by Robert Flynn and Labib Murciano-Goroff of Boston University, Britta Glennon of the University of Pennsylvania and Jiuxi Xiao of Claremont Graduate University.
While the productivity hit is still small, the authors warn that the effect could grow as both sides escalate their nationalist and isolationist policies.
“It’s no secret that science has become increasingly international over the past few decades,” said Glennon, an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an NBER research fellow.
“But reduced talent and knowledge exchange between the United States and China could hinder international scientific collaboration. Nor have Washington and Beijing’s policies given either country an edge in scientific research. The NBER working paper suggests there will be no clear “winner,” the authors write.
U.S.-China tensions over science
The United States has stepped up scrutiny of Chinese students and researchers in recent years, with the Trump administration revoking visas for Chinese students citing national security concerns and making it harder for them to obtain visas to study at U.S. universities.
The FBI also launched the China Initiative in 2018, a program focused on threats such as Beijing-led espionage and intellectual property theft. In 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray He claimed “The Chinese government does not adhere to the same rules of academic integrity and freedom as the United States,” he said, accusing Beijing of using Chinese students as collectors of intellectual property.
However, the China Initiative Highly controversialAcademics, universities and advocacy groups have condemned the program as based on racial profiling and bias against researchers of Chinese descent.
A significant number of cases were dropped or dismissed, and only a quarter of prosecutions led to convictions. according to of MIT Technology Review. About 90 percent of those charged were of Chinese descent.
Biden Administration Officially closed The Chinese government scrapped the China Initiative in February 2022, saying the program was “not an appropriate approach.” But Chinese officials Still complaining US Border Patrol agents harass students entering the country at US airports.
The authors of the NBER working paper also blame Beijing for the decline in U.S.-China science cooperation. They point to President Xi Jinping’s more nationalistic stance, as well as instances of Chinese corporate espionage and forced technology transfer, as motivating the change in U.S. policy. Still, they note that the fundamental change has been in U.S. policy toward China, not the other way around.
US surveillance of Chinese scientists has backfired in the past. After World War II, US security officials revoked the security clearance of Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen, who worked on the Manhattan Project, and placed him under partial house arrest in 1950. Allegations that Qian was a security threat were never substantiated. He was released in 1955 after negotiations between China and the US.
Qian returned to China and eventually revitalized the country’s rocket and space programs.