A new study in Science says China’s researchers are adapting methods in the wake of U.S. sanctions on research collaboration
September 19, 2026—Researchers based in China—Junhan Wang of Shenzhen University, Xibao Li of Tsinghua University, and Yanbo Wang of the University of Hong Kong—conducted a thorough investigation into the U.S. sanctioned entity list and the impact on technological innovation. They found that a decoupling of scientific research might result in separate ecosystems.
Their research is significant for many reasons. For one, it is a deep dive into U.S. sanctions, and in particular, the Bureau of Industry and Security’s U.S. Entity List. It’s a blacklisting of sorts that sets controls on exports. The newly released research paper published this month by Science provides a wealth of data on the Entity List and a comparative review of U.S. and China-based patents. What is interesting is the article’s look at the way geopolitics is impacting technological innovation.
It comes at a time when countries, especially the United States and China, are increasingly competing technological prowess. It is often referred to as a “race,” particularly in regards to artificial intelligence. Aside from AI, it also reflects a competition for strategic superiority in military power, intelligence gathering, and global influence. The race affects everything from semiconductors, AI, and quantum computing, to telecommunications industries.
As the US-China relationship in science shifts from collaboration to a more competitive, restrictive environment, it leads to a separate ecosystem for innovation.
New Study on Sanctions Impact on Science
The researchers who published a lengthy article in the peer-reviewed journal Science this month appear to raise concerns about the movement from collaboration to competition in innovation. They argue that the worst-case scenario is that innovation evolves into separate ecosystems.
Today, Chinese scientists who are impacted by restrictive U.S. export controls are conducting more intense research, citing more scientific literature in their patent applications, and creating alternative products. In effect, they are using an open-source model for innovation that produces new science and products.
“Though hindering the targeted firms’ short-term operations, sanctions may also catalyze these firms’ development of internal capabilities and drive strategic shifts, potentially leading to the emergence of separate technological systems that compete with, rather than integrate into, the current global innovation ecosystem,” they wrote.
In their supplementary material, the writers discuss China’s entry into the global economy from a Western point of view, and they note the deeper context.
“This shift is driven by deep-seated strategic divergences. On one hand, U.S. policymakers express disappointment that China’s integration into the global economy did not lead to the “convergence” of political values—specifically liberty and democracy—that modernization theories predicted. On the other hand, Washington increasingly views China’s rising influence not just as economic competition, but as a structural challenge to the existing U.S.-led international system.”
Overall, their policy article, Geopolitical tensions with the US accelerate Chinese firms’ leveraging of science, provides an interesting take on developments in science. Wang, one of the authors, told the SCMP that Chinese firms are “extremely motivated to search the scientific literature, incorporate the knowledge into innovation” and produce knowledge. In the interview with the SCMP, Wang appears hopeful to turn things back toward collaboration. In the meantime, China’s researchers will continue to “reinvent the wheel.”
Below are some key excerpts:
“As long as you make a sufficient amount of effort and have some luck, you are going to invent something similar, something that you can use to substitute the US technology.”
“Essentially what the US has been doing is forcing China to become independent and develop a separate technological system.”
