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How to sustain scientific collaboration amid worsening US–China relations

Researchers need to define ‘safe zones’ for joint work in which the benefits outweigh the political risks. Here’s how.
By
  1. Valerie J. Karplus

    1. Valerie J. Karplus is a professor in the department of Engineering and Public Policy and associate director of the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  2. Lan Xue

    1. Lan Xue is a professor and dean of Schwarzman College and professor at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

  3. M. Granger Morgan

    1. M. Granger Morgan is a professor of engineering at the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  4. Kebin He

    1. Kebin He is a professor of environmental engineering and director of the Ecological Civilization Research Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

  5. David G. Victor

    1. David G. Victor is a professor of innovation and public policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.

  6. Shuang-Nan Zhang

    1. Shuang-Nan Zhang is director of the Particle Astrophysics Division of the Institute of High Energy Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and professor at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

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As the political relationship between the United States and China has frayed, the scientific ties between them have become thinner and more fragile. This is a dangerous trend. Working together, scientific communities in the two nations have the potential to create technologies and ideas that will benefit the world — such as clean-energy innovations and improved drugs1. But if these communities are driven further apart, the flow of discoveries will slow, and scientists will be less equipped to respond collectively to crises.

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Nature 637, 545-547 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00033-2

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Supplementary Information

  1. Supplementary Table

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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