The United States’ Science And Technology Policy To China In The Carter Administration

Nixon’s visit to China marked the beginning of the relaxation of Sino-U.S.relations.Since then,Sino-U.S.scientific and technological exchanges have been carried out in a non-governmental manner.In the early days of Carter’s coming to power,there was no significant progress in Sino-US scientific and technological exchanges.In May and August 1978,Brzezinski and Press visited China respectively,which marked the start of inter-governmental cooperation in science and technology.After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States,the “China-US Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology” signed during Deng Xiaoping’s visit to the United States marked the right track of scientific and technological cooperation.As the international situation changes,the further development of China-U.S.relations and relaxing technology transfer to China are on the agenda.During his visit to China,Walter Mondale announced that China would be designated as a “friendly nation” and was prepared to transfer to China high-end civilian equipment such as highly sensitive sensors that had not been transferred to the Soviet Union.This meant that technology transfer to China was “decoupled” from the Soviet Union,and the “Chinese difference” policy was established.In March 1980,the United States removed China from Group Y and included it in Group P separately,further relaxing export controls to China.In January and May,the defense ministers of the two countries exchanged visits.The United States began to transfer dual-use technology and military equipment to China.The “China Difference” policy was applied to the military field.By the end of 1980,Sino-U.S.scientific and technological cooperation had made significant progress and affected the Reagan administration.On the basis of fulfilling the scientific and Technological Cooperation Program during the Carter administration,the Reagan administration further relaxed the transfer of dual use technology and started arms sales to China.However,the development of China-US scientific and technological cooperation has also been accompanied by many new problems.In a period of good political relations between China and the United States,the importance of science and technology is often not prominent;but in a period of tension,science and technology will be the first to be affected and become an area where the two sides play.