US and China need contact, not cold war

摘要

This April, a US congressman used budget negotiations to ram through a potentially unconstitutional assault on the president's ability to conduct scientific diplomacy. A bill was passed stipulating that, until September 2011 at least, no appropriated funds may be used by NASA or the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (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".