The White House said to expect “blunt” objections to Chinese hacking when President Xi Jinping visits Washington this month.
“We have been blunt in our assessment that it has significant consequences for national security and our economy,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday. “I would anticipate that discussion will continue when the president has the opportunity to meet with his counterpart.”
Earnest said the discussion would be a continuation of meetings that took place last week, when Chinese officials visited Washington to meet with U.S. security officials.
National Security Adviser Susan Rice received Meng Jianzhu, secretary for the Chinese Communist Party and a former minister of public security, “for a meeting at the White House, where she had a frank and open exchange about cyberissues,” according to an earlier report from the White House. Meng also met with FBI Director James Comey.
On Monday, Earnest said of the meeting, “I can tell you there was a pretty candid exchange of views.”
Xinhua, China’s state news agency, reported that Meng reached “important consensus” with U.S. officials on the need to combat cybercrime. The agency reported Meng saying that “China’s position on opposing hacking and stealing commercial secrets online is resolute.”
On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the U.S. should stop “groundless attacks against China” on the issue of cybersecurity and start a dialogue based on “a foundation of mutual respect, and jointly build a cyberspace that is peaceful, secure, open and cooperative.”
China is a suspect in the hacking of the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel Management this year, in addition to attacks on American companies that result in the loss of commercial secrets.
Officials have suggested that OPM represented a legitimate target for the Chinese, analogous to agencies abroad targeted by the U.S. However, they have taken a stricter stance against commercial hacking. Several anonymous officials in the Obama administration recently suggested that the Treasury Department could place sanctions on Chinese companies in advance of Xi’s visit this month as a result.
However, experts have said those threats are more likely a method of eliciting cooperation on the matter from China, and the rhetoric from Meng following last week’s meeting strongly suggests that China is working to slow such sanctions.
