A senior official in China's foreign ministry on Thursday stressed enhancement of mutual trust and cooperation in cyber security, a day after the U.S. president warned China of industrial espionage.
This is but an "insatiable" attempt by the U.S. to create more room for negotiation during President Xi Jinping's visit later this month, analysts said, as it comes on the heels of a visit from Xi's special envoy Meng Jian-zhu, who was in the U.S. last week to reach "important consensus" on combating cyber crimes.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday told the Business Roundtable, a lobby group composed of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, that cyber security would be a major focus in his talks with Xi, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang on Thursday called on the two countries to build up mutual trust and collaboration on cyber security, making the issue a highlight of Sino-U.S. cooperation, instead of conflicts.
Obama said on Wednesday that the U.S. was preparing measures to show the Chinese that "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."
"Pressured by American companies, Obama has to take a stronger position on the issue in front of the company chief executives," Ni Feng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told the Global Times.
Now that Xi's special envoy Meng Jianzhu has visited the U.S. to exchange views on combating cyber crimes, the U.S. sees more possibilities to strike a bargain with China, he said.
Xi will make a state visit to the U.S. from September 22 to 25 at the invitation of Obama, Lu Kang, a foreign ministry spokesperson, announced Wednesday morning, reported the Xinhua News Agency.
The U.S. has emphasized to China that industrial espionage by its government or its proxies in cyberspace goes beyond traditional intelligence gathering, Obama said.
"It is more of a word game for the U.S. to push China into a disadvantageous position while legalizing its intelligence gathering," Ni said.
He explained that the U.S. government also employ industrial espionage when collecting intelligence, since the so-called traditional tactic, which is often mixed with industrial espionage, is hard to be distinguished.
Liu Weidong, a research fellow with the Institute of American Studies at the CASS, told the Global Times that China and the U.S. can formulate certain rules at first to control the scale of cyber attacks if they attempted to make headway in the negotiations.
