【By Observer Net, Xiong Chaoran】On October 23, the highlight event of the 2025 Future Science Prize Week - the "Asian Young Scientists Fund Program" 2025 Annual Conference was held in Hong Kong, China. At a press conference held before the keynote speech, a Nobel laureate from the United States praised China's "great respect" for science and academia, and criticized the U.S. government for hindering scientific cooperation with China.

The South China Morning Post reported on October 24 that Randy Schekman, who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, believes that the United States has entered a "dark age" in terms of respecting intellectuals and science, especially in its performance on public health measures.

"The atmosphere here is completely different," Schekman said after a comparison: "There is great respect for academia and science here. I really enjoy this respect, and I hope the United States can be like this as well." In addition, the Nobel laureate also highly praised China's "huge investment" in basic science, while compared to this, the U.S. education system appears "too rigid."

On October 23, Schekman spoke. The University of Hong Kong

As the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Schekman is internationally renowned for revealing the mechanism of cellular vesicle transport.

According to reports, when asked about the current state of Sino-U.S. scientific cooperation under the context of geopolitical tensions, Schekman described it as a "very, very bad period."

"Exchange in the field of basic science should not be disturbed by anything. It's not rocket science, nor cybersecurity," he said.

Schekman currently teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, and frequently visits Hong Kong, China. He revealed that many of his colleagues now are unwilling to engage with Chinese researchers.

"Frankly speaking, I think the current U.S. government has created this atmosphere," he said.

The South China Morning Post pointed out that last December, China and the United States renewed the "Sino-U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement," which was extended for five years starting from August 27, 2024. This agreement has long provided a legal and political framework for research personnel in both countries to obtain funding and conduct joint projects.

However, Sino-U.S. relations have always been tense, especially during the administration of former U.S. President Trump. At the same time, there were cases of reduced or frozen research funding in the U.S., causing unrest in the scientific community.

Referring to the "chilling atmosphere" in the U.S. scientific community, the South China Morning Post also mentioned that the notorious "China Initiative" is showing signs of "resurgence."

The "China Initiative" was launched in November 2018, requiring 94 regional judicial departments to file at least one or two lawsuits against China annually to prevent China from "stealing information from the U.S." The FBI also fabricated "Chinese academic spies" based on this initiative and initiated wrongful cases. It was not until February 23, 2022, that the U.S. Department of Justice announced the termination of the "China Initiative" initiated during the first term of the Trump administration.

Last September, when the Biden administration was still in power, the U.S. Congress specifically set up a so-called "China Week," passing multiple bills related to China in a concentrated manner, reflecting a strong anti-China trend.

A bill proposed by Republican congressman Lance Gooden of Texas aims to restart a six-year program similar to the "China Initiative" under the Department of Justice, claiming to curb espionage activities against U.S. intellectual property and academic institutions, and to develop an enforcement strategy targeting laboratory and university researchers.

Scientists who were persecuted by the "China Initiative", from left to right: Hu Anming, Xi Xiaoxing, Tao Feng, photo

Previously, according to the U.S. magazine Science, the Trump administration's 2026 fiscal year budget proposal made "disastrous" cuts to the research sector, requiring a 37% reduction in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), over 50% reduction in funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), and attempting to cancel most of the funding for climate and ecological research, while significantly reducing the science budget of NASA and canceling some planetary exploration missions.

In recent months, researchers and staff from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA have issued open letters criticizing the government's policies in relevant fields.

This September, the Washington Post published an interview with Fields Medalist Terence Tao, which shocked the international scientific community: Affected by the U.S. Trump administration's significant cuts to research funding, research funds were suddenly cut off, and since August, this top Chinese-American mathematician had to put his current projects on hold and focus on one thing - fundraising.

On July 31 this year, the Trump administration accused the University of California, Los Angeles, of failing to address campus antisemitism and bias, and froze nearly $600 million in federal research funds, leading to the suspension of Tao's research funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Although a court order has restored NSF funding, Tao revealed that his personal research funding and the funding for the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) remain unsecured, and the operating funds of the institute have already been exhausted. To make matters worse, the approval of new funding projects has stalled, putting IPAM, where Tao serves as a special project director, into survival crisis.

The Washington Post pointed out that mathematics and politics rarely intersect, but Tao's public comments directly pointing to the instability, delay, and uncertainty of federal research funding are endangering America's unique scientific ecosystem.

Previously, Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, stated that Sino-U.S. science and technology cooperation is essentially mutually beneficial and win-win. The "Sino-U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement" is one of the first government-to-government agreements signed after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, providing strong support for Sino-U.S. science and technology exchanges and cooperation. The renewal of the "Sino-U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement" is an important measure to implement the consensus of the meeting between the leaders of the two countries, which is in line with the interests of the people of the two countries and meets the expectations of the international community. It will not only promote the progress of science and technology and socio-economic development in the two countries, but also promote the two sides to respond to global challenges together, and enhance the well-being of the people of the world.

"We hope that the U.S. side will move in the same direction as China, truly implement the agreement arrangements, so that the achievements of Sino-U.S. science and technology cooperation can truly benefit the two countries and the world," Lin Jian said.

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