Spy Balloon Fuels Calls to Revoke 1979 Deal With China

Given the tension between the two countries over Taiwan and the South China Sea and Beijing’s alleged practice of pressurising foreign companies into sharing trade secrets and intellectual property with Chinese corporate partners, its attempt to carry out large scale cyber espionage and stealing of technologies, many analysts have argued that the US-China agreement must be scrapped altogether

A day after Nikkei Haley, an ex-US Ambassador to the UN who is running for the Republican presidential nomination pledged to bring about a “sea change” in the US policy towards China to protect American interests, 10 US lawmakers wrote a letter to the Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 27, requesting him to prevent the Joe Biden administration from extending a 1979 agreement with China on science and technology after it expires on August 27.

More than four decades ago, the US headed by then President Jimmy Carter signed an agreement with China on cooperation in science and technology (STA) in order to strengthen friendly relations between the two countries. The agreement is renewed every five years. In view of rising concerns about China’s growing military strength and theft of US scientific knowhow and technologies, US lawmakers, including Chair of the US House of Representatives Select Committee on China, Mike Gallagher, want that the US should desist from renewing the 1979 agreement when it expires on August 27. The immediate cause of writing this letter to the Secretary of State was the alleged Chinese spy balloon that floated over America earlier this year. This was highlighted by The Wall Street Journal in its report on June 28, which said the Chinese balloon was equipped with US-made surveillance gear. An analysis by the US defence and intelligence agencies of debris recovered after the balloon was shot down by the US military off the coast of South Carolina in February this year, revealed that the said balloon was equipped with American gear, along with more specialised Chinese sensors and other equipment to collect photographs, video, and other information to transmit to China, The Wall Street Journal said.

The prominent international daily said findings of US defence and intelligence agencies support a conclusion that the Chinese balloon was intended for spying, and not for weather monitoring as China claimed. While such disclosures have speeded up the further worsening of the two countries’ ties, the US lawmakers in their letter to Antony Blinken accused Beijing of using “academic researchers, industrial espionage, forced technology transfers,” and other tactics to gain an edge in critical technologies, which in turn leads to “modernisation” of PLA, South China Morning Post said. However, Global Times in its editorial termed the US lawmakers’ letter to the Secretary of State as an attempt to “knock down another foundation of China-US relations.”

“Anyone with basic common sense about China-US relations knows that the China-US Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement is not a sensitive contract. It is not dedicated to cutting-edge advanced technology cooperation but rather covers areas of cooperation primarily in basic research, including environmental sciences, agricultural sciences, physics, and chemistry,” Global Times said in its editorial on June 28. The CPC mouthpiece further said, “The agreement has not only promoted scientific research cooperation between the two countries but has also directly facilitated exchanges in fields such as business, education, and culture…In critical areas like agriculture, the US has benefited substantially from this agreement. Those anti-China lawmakers cannot find any faults with it, so they resort to baseless “concerns” to hinder its continuation.

”Several US media reports suggest that America has been conducting a review of the Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement. But the US State Department earlier this month declined to comment on “internal deliberations on negotiations,” Reuters said.

Given the tension between the two countries over Taiwan and the South China Sea and Beijing’s alleged practice of pressurising foreign companies into sharing trade secrets and intellectual property with Chinese corporate partners, its attempt to carry out large-scale cyber espionage and stealing of technologies, many analysts have argued that the US-China agreement must be scrapped altogether. However, there are others who say that the agreement should be reworked to protect US interests. Yet there are those who say that the agreement should be allowed to continue as it gives the US valuable insight into China’s technical advances. Despite this, anti-China discussions and debates have gained currency in the US with former US Ambassador to the UN, Nikkei Haley making a frontal attack on the Chinese ruling dispensation, stating, “Communist China is the greatest threat to American security and prosperity by far.”

Speaking on the future of US-China policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC on June 28, Nikkei Haley referred to China’s recent actions, including the surveillance balloon that flew over the US, interception of a US fighter jet in the South China Sea as “purposeful actions of a communist dictatorship.”

She called for blocking US investments and exports as they enable China to strengthen the PLA or the CPC apparatus.