NSF ban on Chinese cooperation another “decoupling” move

Whether judged by its scope, enforcement strength, or precision of targeting, the reported new policy to be issued by the US National Science Foundation to ban researchers receiving its funding from cooperating with Chinese scientists would set a record unprecedented for three decades since the end of the Cold War.

According to a draft disclosed by the renowned journal Science, the core of the proposed NSF rules is to embed “national security reviews” throughout the process of scientific cooperation. Researchers and institutions receiving NSF funding would be prohibited from using federal money to engage in restricted forms of cooperation with research entities and individuals based in China.

The ban would cover six areas: joint research projects, co-authored papers, data and resource sharing, personnel exchanges, joint supervision of students, and participation in talent programs. Even pure basic research in fields such as mathematics and theoretical physics, traditionally regarded as posing little or even no risk of leaking sensitive information, would not be exempt. A blacklist once aimed mainly at a small number of defense-related universities would effectively be expanded to cover all Chinese research institutions and individuals.

In other words, almost every known possible channel for cooperation would be shut down.

This is entirely consistent with the “decoupling” from China openly advocated by the Trump administration in 2020. The Biden administration differed from Trump on almost every major issue, yet on decoupling from China it largely continued the same course. Since returning to the White House in 2025, Trump may not have frequently used the term “decoupling” in official documents or public speeches, but his administration has steadily pursued the policies it represents.

Under the logic of decoupling, the US government adopted the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022, legally barring recipients of federal funding from participating in “malign foreign talent recruitment programs.” In 2025, the NSF revised its research security policies, requiring principal investigators to submit annual certifications declaring that they had not participated in prohibited talent programs. In May 2026, the White House Office of Management and Budget introduced broader federal funding rules extending restrictions to all “countries of concern.”

Now another shoe is dropping, pushing Chinese and American scientists farther apart than ever.

In the short term, China-US research projects dependent on NSF funding channels would grind to a halt, while academic exchanges in some fields would decline sharply. Over the medium and long term, however, the policy would also force China’s research system to accelerate its drive for greater self-reliance and more diversified cooperation. The Chinese government is already directing more funding toward semiconductors and other fields in which the country faces external technological restrictions.

China will also seek closer scientific cooperation with Europe and other countries and regions. Given the increasingly isolationist direction of US policy and the succession of beggar-thy-neighbor measures introduced by the White House, a global “non-American” network of cooperation, which means without the participation of the US, is already beginning to take shape.