The year 1979 was a pivotal one in Sino-American relations. On a historic visit to the United States, Deng Xiaoping, China’s paramount leader, met with President Jimmy Carter at the White House and attended the Round-Up Rodeo in Simonton, Texas, where he donned a ten-gallon hat and charmed the crowd. And, reflecting the rapid normalization of bilateral relations over the course of the decade, the two countries signed the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, which provided a framework for regulating technology, exchanging scientists, scholars, students and developing joint projects.
Now, 45 years later, that historic agreement has been allowed to lapse, a casualty of an American presidential-election year and heightened U.S.-China tensions. And this breakdown comes on top of U.S. tariffs on imports from China, prohibitions on exports of advanced technologies to the country, and, most recently, the addition of 42 Chinese firms to a trade restriction list for supplying the Russian military. Economic relations between the U.S. and China have never been worse.
The implications are profound, because several of the world’s most pressing economic problems can be solved only with contributions from both countries. And, to address global challenges, active cooperation between the two economic powers is indispensable.
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