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The US and China, the largest scientific research producers, are now international adversaries in the midst of a global health crisis. Since the new coronavirus was discovered, geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing in relation to COVID-19 have been appearing on major news outlets daily, and the US-China trade war has escalated to a looming “new cold war.” Despite such turmoil, scientists around the world, including researchers in the US and China, are collaborating at a higher rate than ever before to address COVID-19, according to our analysis of SCOPUS bibliometric data.
Even before the current pandemic, geopolitical tensions were brewing as global rivalry between the two superpowers was steadily intensifying, and the decoupling trend between the two countries has been ongoing for some time. But experts have speculated that COVID-19 accelerated preexisting skepticism by the US, especially about the country’s economic overreliance on China. And ...
