U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had reached a “common understanding” on steps to curb cyber spying and agreed that neither government would conduct economic espionage in cyberspace.
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Xi said that China, which has recently shed its reluctance to join United Nations defense efforts, would “take the lead” in setting up an 8,000-troop “permanent peacekeeping police squad” that could be deployed at short notice.
us intelligence officials think China was behind the theft of millions of security-clearance files as well as recent cyberlooting of health insurance and airline records.
“Both sides acknowledge that for new and future institutions to be significant contributors to the global financial architecture, these institutions, like the existing worldwide financial institutions, are to be operated … with the existing high environmental and governance standards”, it said.
Xi said China and United States have agreed to establish a high-level dialogue mechanism to fight cyber-crimes. They are among a few 50 world leaders, more than a third from Europe, who are set to pledge thousands of troops and police, equipment or training for United Nations peacekeeping missions during a United Nations summit later on Monday that will be chaired by Obama.
Xi is making an appearance at Sunday’s conference to raise China’s profile on the world stage, and to show it is engaged in issues like human rights and women’s development, say analysts.
The US government has urged China to raise the transparency of its foreign exchange policy and let the market decide the value of currencies.
Earlier Friday, Obama welcomed Xi to the White House with full honors, including a 21-gun salute. “I want to assure you that such goodwill is fully reciprocated by the Chinese people“.
Chinese President Xi Jinping defended his country’s island building in the South China Sea, saying the construction activity does “not target or impact any country and China does not intend to pursue militarization”. We learned recently that Russian companies gamed the EU’s flawed cap-and-trade system so they could make money by increasing emissions.
On other issues, the leaders either politely disagreed or made only vague commitments.
The announcement of the deal came on the final day of Xi’s United States tour, and follows rumours that the U.S. was planning to enforce “cyber-sanctions” on China following a series of attacks.
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Obama said their summit talks included a “candid” discussion on Asia-Pacific disputes, focusing on growing tensions in the South China Sea where China has competing territorial claims with several Southeast Asian countries.
