US and China in cybercrime agreement

“Relevant construction activities that China are undertaking in the islands of the South China Sea do not impact any country, and China does not intend to pursue militarisation”, he said.

“The renminbi exchange rate after reform has experienced a certain degree of fluctuation”, Xi said through an interpreter.

The red carpet and full ceremonial welcome accorded to Xi from the White House underlined the importance of the growing dependence of the two great powers, but the leaders candidly expressed their differences.

“Islands in the South China Sea since ancient times are Chinese territory”, the Chinese president said, adding that China has the right to uphold its own territorial sovereignty and lawful legitimate maritime rights and interests.

The announcement, made jointly with U.S. President Barack Obama, comes as both countries prepare to strike a global carbon emissions agreement at the Paris climate negotiations in December.

“During my visit, competent authorities of both countries have reached important consensus on joint fight against cyber-crimes”, the Chinese leader said.

When news of those plans appeared in the USA media, China dispatched a high-level delegation, led by Meng Jianzhu, the secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, to work out a deal.

The agreement may not be easy to enforce, particularly since it’s often hard to trace the source of cyberattacks and the Chinese government has never acknowledged a role in past attacks, said Betsy Page Sigman, a cybersecurity expert at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Xi said that China would launch an assistance fund for developing countries with an initial investment of $US2 billion. “I indicated that it has to stop”, Obama said in a press conference with Xi today.

All countries should enhance their development capacity, the environment for development should be improved, the development partnership between rich and poor countries should be optimised, and coordination mechanism for development should be strengthened, he said.

“Today, China – one of the largest providers of public financing for infrastructure worldwide – agreed to work towards strictly controlling public investment flowing into projects with high pollution and carbon emissions both domestically and internationally”, the statement said.

The United States and China have reached a historic agreement on cyber security, pledging that neither would conduct cyber espionage against the other country. However, only a strong leader could say this with conviction, and we don’t have one.

The Chinese president will be in New York from September 26 to 28 for a series of summits and meetings marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

Obama himself also left open the door to imposing the sanctions that his administration has threatened, which were specially created by an executive order in April. “There’s many countries who have sophisticated cyber capabilities, but not many use it for economic gain, and that’s where China stands out”.