US President Barack Obama (right) and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington yesterday.
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The US has blamed China for a series of high-profile cyberattacks on USA government and business entities in recent years.
Harris said last week that China’s runway building and further militarization of the artificial islands was of “great concern” and posed a threat to all countries in the region. China has repeatedly denied being engaged in cyber spying.
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping promoted new agreements on cybersecurity and climate on Friday that they said could yield breakthroughs for their nations.
USA officials suspect China-based hackers are responsible, though the Obama administration did not publicly blamed Beijing for the theft.
The two leaders also agreed on a scheme aimed at avoiding a possible military incident in airspace and reaffirmed their commitment to denuclearizing North Korea.
Paying his first-ever visit to the United Nations, Xi on Monday took a new step to address criticism that China has not taken responsiblity commensurate with its growing size.
You can read the full text of the joint statement here.
On the thorny issue of human rights, Obama said he had “frank” discussions with Xi.
When Xi arrived in the USA earlier this week, he kicked off his trip by meeting with 28 executives from leading American technology companies, at a conference in Seattle.
Essentially, if an entity who is not state-sponsored conducts cyber intrusions on China from within US borders, the USA has pledged to investigate as if it were an attack on its own systems, and vice versa.
He added that mutual cooperation was possible if both sides recognized there was a difference between “friendly competition and competition that tilts the playing field unfairly in one direction or another”.
At the same time, Obama has warned that progress on climate change and other issues could be threatened by China’s continued cybertheft of intellectual property.
At the state dinner, Obama and Xi honoured the ties between their nations with toasts.
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Also, a testament to the increasing agreement of the two countries in tackling at least certain global issues was visible in the factsheet of the talks that started off by pledging to continue cooperation in economic development and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
