On December 13, 2024, the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC) signed a protocol to amend the U.S.-PRC Science and Technology Agreement (STA) and extend it for five years. The STA provides consistent standards for U.S.-PRC bilateral government-to-government scientific cooperation.
This modernized and strengthened Agreement sustains intellectual property protections, establishes new guardrails for implementing agencies to protect the safety and security of their researchers, and advances U.S. interests through newly established and strengthened provisions on transparency and data reciprocity.
The amended Agreement ensures that any federal science and technology cooperation with the PRC under the STA benefits the United States and minimizes risks to U.S. national security. The amended Agreement covers only basic research; this Agreement does not facilitate the development of critical and emerging technologies.
The modernized STA is one way in which the United States is responsibly managing strategic competition with the PRC. It is the result of extensive consultations across the U.S. Government and months of negotiation between the United States and the PRC.
