Obama To Discuss Cyber-Espionage Concerns With China's President Xi Jinping

President Barack Obama  will discuss cybersecurity concerns with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the latter’s formal state visit to Washington on September 25, Reuters reported on Monday. The issue of hacking of both government and commercial systems in the United States will be discussed. This will be Xi’s first formal state visit to the U.S. Neither Obama nor his spokesman or other U.S. officials had, until today, made a statement regarding whether Obama would address cyber espionage and cybersecurity issues directly with Xi during Xi’s visit.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told Reuters that he “did not have any updates on the timing of potential sanctions against China related to cyber-attacks ahead of Xi’s visit.” Administration officials speaking anonymously on September 2 had indicated that sanctions for cyber espionage could be announced as early as the following week, after the Labor Day holiday.
Monday’s statement comes after the White House disclosed on Sunday that it had just concluded four days of an unannounced, closed-door meetings about cybersecurity between high-level U.S. and Chinese intelligence officials, including National Security Adviser Susan Rice, FBI’s James Comey, representatives from the U.S. Justice, State and Treasury departments and the intelligence community, and Meng Jianzhu, secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party.

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping File photo 2014.

Speaking aboard Air Force One as Obama was flying to Iowa, Ernest added very little to the paucity of information disclosed about those closed-door meetings, except to say “I can tell you that there was a pretty candid exchange of views.” He added that he thought the administration has “been pretty blunt in describing the concerns that we have with China’s behavior in cyberspace. We have been blunt in our assessment that has significant consequences for our economy and for our national security.