Governing the Paradox of Knowledge: How Research Security Shapes Open Science in EU–China Academic Cooperation

This article examines how the European Union (EU) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) conceptualise and govern the relationship between Open Science (OS) and research security (RS), and how this shapes conditions for international academic cooperation. Drawing on a qualitative comparative analysis of evolving EU-level policy instruments and five core PRC planning and legal documents, the study shows that the EU frames OS–RS as an internal governance paradox: openness is promoted as a scientific and normative ideal, yet constrained through risk management, multi-level coordination, and the principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.” In China, OS and RS are not paradoxical but co-aligned within a unified Party-state framework that advances strategically bounded openness. The paradox emerges externally when this model encounters global OS norms. The study concludes that these differing approaches structurally shape the OS–RS nexus and will condition future possibilities for EU–China academic cooperation.