U.S., China agree on new steps to address cybercrime

“The United States government does not engage in cyber economic espionage for commercial gain”.

Xi said China and the USA fought fascist invasion during the second World War, shoulder-to-shoulder, and safeguarded peace, freedom and justice. “China strongly opposes and combats the theft of commercial secrets and other kinds of hacking attacks”.

The agreement to clamp down on the theft of trade secrets doesn’t address the theft of national security information, such as the tens of millions of USA federal personnel records that American lawmakers and some us officials have said was engineered by Beijing.

Experts said while the deal was a step forward, it wasn’t the end of the conversation.

The new promises, which follow a bilateral deal struck previous year on cutting emissions, strengthen Mr. Obama’s position for the Paris conference on climate change in December, at which the President is expected to push for sweeping emissions cuts from other counties.

China and the United States recognized the importance of mobilizing climate finance to support low-carbon, climate-resilient development in developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, small island developing states and African countries, according to a China-U.S. joint presidential statement on climate change signed Friday.

On Thursday, the White House said it was considering economic sanctions against Chinese individuals and entities claiming they have profited from hacks of United States networks.

In a reminder of potential flashpoints, the United States and China also finalised a plan aimed at reducing the risk of aerial collisions between warplanes in areas such as the South China Sea through adoption of common rules of behaviour.

“This year is about showing the world our countries’ conviction to policies to reach those targets and to lead the world toward a durable global climate agreement”, said a White House administration official. “I indicated that it has to stop”, Mr. Obama said, but the talk was tougher than the outcome.

Lawmakers who have worked especially on cyber issues also hailed the announcement but expressed skepticism about China’s credibility. But Shuo said that pledge is still subject to Congress’ approval.

A White House fact sheet noted that the two sides had agreed to new annexes on air-to-air safety and crisis communications to previous agreements designed to build confidence between the two militaries, which operate in close quarters in the Asia Pacific region. China and the US must seek “a new model of major-country relations”, he argued, repeating a diplomatic theme he introduced in 2013.

In recent weeks, however, US officials have been taking a tougher line publicly against China’s hacking, saying it is reaching epidemic levels.

Xi, during a morning arrival ceremony, called on the US and China to be “broadminded about differences and disagreements”.

“This is not just a matter of us being mildly upset, but is something that will put significant strains on a bilateral relationship if not resolved, and that we are prepared to take some countervailing actions”, Obama said this month.

Obama warned that he was prepared to impose sanctions on Beijing if cybertheft continued unabated.