Washington (AFP)
The US Department of Energy has banned its researchers from joining a controversial Beijing program aimed at attracting the best international scientists to China.
In a circular discreetly published last week and obtained Wednesday by the AFP, this ministry prohibits its employees and its subcontractors to be recruited by a program involving any unauthorized transfer of scientific and technical data.
Even if it is not mentioned by name, it is aimed at the "1,000 talent" plan of the Chinese authorities, thanks to which Beijing hopes to seduce the cream of the world scientists, backed by varied financial incentives and well-stocked research grants.
These American measures intervene in the midst of the current trade war between Beijing and Washington, a conflict currently dominated by technological issues.
The US Department of Energy coordinates strategic research programs ranging from supercomputers to particle accelerators to nuclear power.
US authorities, especially since Donald Trump is in the White House, denounce attempts of economic and scientific espionage of China, and leaks of technology operated by researchers.
Washington is particularly concerned that China's top universities and state-owned enterprises are directly under the control of the ruling Communist Party.
A Chinese who came to the United States on a student visa had been arrested in September 2018 in Chicago, accused of helping Beijing to try to poach American scientists and engineers.
For its part, China, which wants more and more to orient its economic development towards the technologies of the future, tries to reverse the steam in its research laboratories, after having been a victim for a long time of the flight of its brains, in particular towards the United States.
? 2019 AFP