At the invitation of Dr. Marburger, the President’s Science Advisor and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, XU Guanhua, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology, led a Chinese delegation on a visit to the US in April 2006. While in Washington, Minister XU participated in relevant activities for President HU Jintao's visit there.
During his visit, Minister XU met with Dr Marburger. The two signed the Protocol for the Extension of China-US S&T Cooperation Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the two governments and decided to renew the China-US S&T Cooperation Agreement again for another 5 years. In the talks afterwards, they exchanged opinions on the 12th China-US Joint Commission Meeting for S&T Cooperation to be held in Beijing in October this year and the preparatory work for the China-US S&T Policy Forum and preliminarily confirmed the key topics for discussion at the joint committee meeting. Minister XU introduced the relevant contents of the newly promulgated Outline of National Medium and Long-term S&T Development Plan (2006 —2020) and Dr. Marburger gave an account of the American Competitiveness Initiative for the future 10 years announced by President Bush at the beginning of this year.
On the same day, Minister XU also held talks with Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services. Together the two signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on Health and Medical Sciences Cooperation". This MOU aims at bilateral scientific research cooperation in the fields of AIDS, emerging and reemerging infections, traditional medicine, vaccine-preventable diseases, tissue & organ engineering and regenerative medicine. The two sides also briefed each other on respective scientific research in the area of population and health and reached common understanding on further implementation of the MOU. After the meeting, Minister XU and his party made a tour of the Emergency Management Center of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department of Social Development of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of International Cooperation of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the US National Institutes of Health signed the Letter of Intent on International Collaboration in Complementary, Alternative, and Traditional Medicine Research. This Letter of Intent opened up new fields for China-US S&T cooperation and will remarkably facilitate the cooperation between the two governments and among the S&T circles in the field of traditional medicine and the research into the complementary medical advantages of the East and West. It will also promote the modernization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine.
