Obama presses Xi Jinping to crack down on cyber attacks

At Friday’s joint news conference, President Xi defended Beijing’s claim to the area and said its construction work on artificial islands there doesn’t target any country and stressed that it “doesn’t intend to pursue militarization”. “It’s a big change in what the Chinese have been willing to do before”, Lewis said, adding that the line he heard from the Obama administration was that sanctions are still on the table. In April, Obama signed a decree giving the USA government the right to sanction suspected cyber-criminals with financial and travel restrictions. While the US defends its own vast surveillance programs, it argues there should be an global norm against stealing business secrets to benefit a country’s own companies.

The USA earlier pledged $3 billion to a United Nations fund to aid developing nations reduce emissions. Traditional Chinese Shaoxing wine was served as guests enjoyed their starter, wild mushroom soup with black truffle, according to the official menu provided by the White House.

However, evidence of extensive USA cyber-espionage against China – revealed by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden – overshadowed the last big attempt to tackle the issue during a previous meeting between the two leaders in Sunnylands, California.

Obama said that in their summit talks they had a “candid” discussion on Asia-Pacific disputes, focussing on growing tensions in the South China Sea where China has competing territorial claims with several Southeast Asian countries.

In July, NBC News obtained a NSA map that shows the Chinese government’s massive cyber assault on all sectors of the U.S economy – including major firms like Google and Lockheed Martin – and the US government and military.

Obama spoke in the White House Rose Garden alongside Xi during the Chinese president’s official state visit, and chided Xi over the issues of Chinese cyberthreats, violation of basic human rights, and Chinese action in the South China Sea. I can’t guarantee the actions of every single American.

Even if the two countries carry out the letter of the agreement, neither side has agreed to enough that corporate security pros should let down their guard.

“The United States and China commit to enact almost complete bans on ivory import and export, including significant and timely restrictions on the import of ivory as hunting trophies, and to take significant and timely steps to halt the domestic commercial trade of ivory”, the White House stated in a fact sheet released Friday .

We have broad common interests in the field of cyber, but we need to strengthen cooperation and avoid confrontation, Xi said.

The agreement won praise from the USA tech industry, which has argued that Chinese spying has put it at an unfair disadvantage.

The two countries also announced their intention to work toward creating peacetime policies for the worldwide community in cyberspace. “It illustrates a spirit of cooperation on a sensitive issue, which is a positive signal to technology companies”. “This agreement finally starts a sustained dialogue where there was very little communication”.