China and US Discussed Internet Arms Race (Breaking News)

The two countries sought to paper over their differences on Internet security after an inconclusive summit aimed at settling a growing online arms race between the two largest economies in the world.

Barack Obama & Xi Jinping

Barack Obama welcomed a pledge by the Chinese president to avoid “knowingly” spying on American companies, but at the same time warned that he could pursue sanctions against Chinese entities suspected of attacking US businesses and government agencies. In his turn, the Chinese president warned against “politicizing” the threat from computer hacking and pointed out that China had more to lose from cybercrime, accounting for the world’s largest number of users while having less developed offensive capabilities.

So, China believes that the two countries have broad common interests, but they need to strengthen cooperation and avoid confrontation or politicizing the problem. As you remember, tensions have flared between the US and China after a spate of recent attacks, largely against American government networks.

Nevertheless, Snowden’s revelations of extensive US cyber-espionage against China overshadowed the last major attempt to address by the two leaders. Now they were anxious to emphasize progress on other fronts, most noticeably the environment. However, the issue of hacking dominated the recent 2-day meeting in Washington, especially after the US blamed a recent hack of its federal personnel records on China.

Obama focused on the threat to corporate interests and paid little attention to Chinese arguments that cyber attacks were carried out by non-state actors. China admitted that the two presidents had a long history of discussing the problem and promised further talks.