China syndromeBill prohibits joint U.S.-China scientific activity
Language inserted into the 2011 spending bill would prohibit any joint scientific activity between the United States and China that involves NASA or is coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP); Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Virginia), the author of the prohibition, says: “China is spying against us, and every U.S. government agency has been hit by cyberattacks —- They are stealing technology from every major U.S. company. They have taken technology from NASA, and they have hit the NSF computers. —- You name the company, and the Chinese are trying to get its secrets”
Few have noticed, but Representative Frank Wolf (R-Virginia), a staunch critic of the Chinese government and chair of a key appropriations subcommittee, inserted two sentences into the 2011 spending bill legislation that prohibits any joint scientific activity between the United States and China that involves NASA or is coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Science notes that on the surface, it appears that the language applies only to these two entities, and the bill extends only for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year, which ends on 30 September. This still cuts a wide swath.
Wolf does not conceal his desire permanently to shut down all collaborations between the two governments.
“We don’t want to give them the opportunity to take advantage of our technology, and we have nothing to gain from dealing with them,” says Wolf. “And frankly, it boils down to a moral issue. … Would you have a bilateral program with Stalin?”
The language in the spending bill says that no government funds can be used by NASA or OSTP “to develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company.” It also prevents any NASA facility from hosting “official Chinese visitors.”
Wolf told Science that he singled out NASA because China’s space program, although nominally independent, “is run by the People’s Liberation Army.” The inclusion of OSTP, though, is meant to cast a much bigger net, he adds. “It addresses everything, the entire bilateral relationship on science and technology with respect to NASA and everything that involves OSTP,” he says. “It’s the whole ball of wax.”
Science reports that 0n 19 January the administration extended a 1979 U.S.-Chinese agreement on scientific cooperation. On announcing the extension, the Obama administration said the cooperation will cover “fisheries, earth and atmospheric sciences, basic research in physics and chemistry, energy, agriculture, civil industrial technology, geology, health, and disaster relief.”
“China is spying against us, and every U.S. government agency has been hit by cyberattacks,” Wolf said in explaining his opposition to any collaboration with the Chinese government. “They are stealing technology from every major U.S. company. They have taken technology from NASA, and they have hit the NSF computers. … You name the company, and the Chinese are trying to get its secrets.”
Wolf added that “maybe next year we’ll include NGOs [non-governmental organizations].” He adds that anyone who thinks the Chinese NGOs can operate independently of the government “is really naïve.”
