Obama, Xi Talk Cybersecurity at Summit
Coping with cybersecurity issues such as hacking and intellectual property theft puts the U.S. and China in uncharted waters, lacking the historical protocols that govern military and arms negotiations, President Obama said after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping June 8. He said IPR and hacking are issues of “international concern,” and often involve non-state actors. “We’re going to have to work very hard to build a system of defenses and protections, both in the private sector and in the public sector, even as we negotiate with other countries around setting up common rules of the road,” Obama said. Xi said by conducting “good-faith cooperation” the U.S. and China can not only improve trust but make cybersecurity a “positive area of cooperation between China and the U.S. Because China and the United States both have a need and both share a concern, and China is a victim of cyber attacks and we hope that earnest measures can be taken to resolve this matter.”
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Xi added that he noted a “sharp increased media coverage” of cybersecurity in the run up to his summit with Obama, the first time the two met as presidents of their respective countries. Concerns over cybersecurity got a public boost in February, after private security firm Mandiant released a report saying the Chinese government has coordinated multiple cyberhacks against the U.S. The Obama administration rolled out a trade secret theft enforcement plan later that month (see 13022116). A Senate bill introduced in May would restrict trade with foreign countries and companies found cyberhacking or stealing trade secrets (see 13050812).