Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first state visit to the United States last week, and his itinerary included meetings with U.S. technology company leaders as well as President Barack Obama. Not surprisingly, his hosts on the West Coast and in Washington, D.C. wanted to address cybersecurity, and the visit yielded the announcement of a bilateral agreement on cybersecurity. However, it is too early to say whether the new accord will bring lasting change in U.S.-Chinese relations.
Early in the week, President Xi was in Seattle to meet Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. In an address given Tuesday, President Xi resisted longstanding accusations that China has sponsored economically- and politically-motivated cyberattacks. “The Chinese government will not in whatever form engage in commercial theft, and hacking against government networks are crimes that must be punished in accordance with the law and relevant international treaties,” he stated. Rather than the perpetrator, President Xi argued that China, too, had been a victim of hackers. He also announced that China was prepared to agree with the United States to a framework for responding to Internet crime.
On Friday, President Xi was in Washington, D.C., where the White House announced the terms of that agreement. Each country has agreed to cooperate (subject to its own laws) with the investigation of cybercrimes, and has promised that it will not “conduct or knowingly support” theft of intellectual property for private gain. The countries also cited multilateral cooperation on setting international relations norms regarding cybersecurity. Perhaps most encouragingly, the parties’ agreement creates a bi-annual meeting of respective government stakeholders (including, from the U.S., the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General), which will, among other things, establish a hotline to escalate perceived cybersecurity incidents.
China’s involvement in hacking has long been an open secret, with the latest report on the People’s Liberation Army’s infamous Unit 78020 published to coincide with President Xi’s visit. Indeed, reports suggest that the deal on cybersecurity cooperation is the result of earlier threats from the Obama administration to impose sanctions for China’s alleged attacks on U.S. firms. Against this fraught history, it seems unlikely that the new U.S.-Chinese agreement will stop state-sponsored attacks (or the perception of state-sponsored attacks) overnight. On the contrary, if a significant new attack is detected and can be proved, sanctions may be more likely than ever.
Reporter, Daniel Ray, Silicon Valley, +1 650 422 6715, dray@kslaw.com.
