Roundup: Third China-U.S. cybersecurity ministerial dialogue yields positive outcomes

The third China-U.S. ministerial dialogue on fighting cyber crimes and other related affairs issued Thursday a list of positive fruits as the two sides worked hard to strengthen cooperation in cybersecurity.

The dialogue was co-chaired by China's State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.

During this round of dialogue, both sides endorsed the establishment of the dialogue mechanism as beneficial to bilateral communication and enhanced cooperation, and both regarded further solidifying, developing, and maintaining the dialogue mechanism as beneficial to mutual interests.

Both sides recommitted to cooperate on investigating cyber crimes and related matters emanating from China or the United States and to refrain from cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property with the intent of offering competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors, said the document.

China and the United States identified a number of areas for future cooperation on enhancing cybersecurity, including enhancing network hygiene by cleaning and patching malware infections in respective networks, engaging in regular reciprocal sharing of malicious IP addresses, malware samples and other network protection information.

The two countries pledged to continue discussion on future cooperation in cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, and to hold as early as possible in 2017 a China-U.S.government and technology company roundtable to discuss cybersecurity issues of mutual concern.

As to the fight against cyber terrorism, both sides acknowledged the seminar on misuse of technology and communications to facilitate violent acts of terrorism held in November this year in China. Both sides will consider holding another seminar in 2017.

The two countries agreed that the dialogue should continue to be held each year.

In his remarks to the meeting, Guo noted that under the auspices of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, China-U.S. cooperation in safeguarding cybersecurity is booming and has yielded positive outcomes in cracking down on cyber crimes and related matters.

Calling the current China-U.S. cooperation in cybersecurity a link between past and future, Guo proposed that the two sides press on in using the dialogue mechanism as the main channel for communication in tackling cybersecurity issues, give prompt and effective response to the requests from the other side, and constructively manage their differences.

The U.S. side said that China and the United States share common interests in fighting cyber crimes and protecting cybersecurity, and the high-level dialogue mechanism also serves as a crucial platform for candid communication and enhancing mutual understanding and trust between law enforcement officials of the two countries.

According to 2014 data from the Cyberspace Administration of China, China has been a victim of cyber-attacks. More than 10,000 websites are tampered with every month, and about 80 percent of government websites suffered attacks, mainly originating in the United States.

Also, the Internet Society of China reported that 84 percent of Internet users in the country have been affected by personal information leaks. The number of Internet users in China hit 710 million in June this year.

China's top legislature in November adopted a cybersecurity law to safeguard sovereignty on cyberspace, national security and the rights of citizens. Endi