Audrey Streb is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.

China and the U.S. signed a science cooperation agreement this month, an agreement that has been renewed every five years since 1979—yet one expert urges that this time, it’s “inexcusable.”

Many conservatives argue that this decision should have been left to the incoming Trump administration, as the inauguration is now only weeks away. However, that is far from the only objection to the agreement renewal.

Considering the Chinese Communist Party’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic and its “systematic cover- up,” experts in the field of U.S.-China relations are concerned that the CCP will take advantage of the agreement.

“It’s inexcusable that we would sign any kind of finance pact with them—or any kind of agreement— until they were held accountable for their role [in the COVID-19 pandemic].” Erin Walsh, a senior research fellow for national security in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, told The Daily Signal.

Walsh noted that though then-President Donald Trump did renew the agreement back in 2018, that was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The State Department did adjust the pact, officially known as the U.S.-PRC Science and Technology Agreement. These amendments have “modernized and strengthened” the agreement with the goal of “transparency and data reciprocity,” according to its statement, released on Dec. 13.

Despite these adjustments, conservatives remain apprehensive.

A 2018 White House report found that China stole “between $180 billion and $540 billion annually” in intellectual property. Walsh said that this is “an unprecedented amount of stolen research and IP theft.”

Conservatiuves see it as an obvious attempt to tie the hands of the new president.