Later this month, one of the oldest bilateral agreements between the U.S. and China is set to expire. Signed in 1979, in the same month that the U.S. and China normalized diplomatic relations, the Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology has paved the way for four decades of research collaboration between the two countries. U.S. President Jimmy Carter called it part of an “irreversible course” in Chinese‐American relations. His successor, President Ronald Reagan, called it “a c