China, US seek common ground on cyber standards

China and the United States are actively seeking common ground to create global standards regarding the cyber environment, according to Wu Xi, minister of Chinese Embassy in the US.

"During the state visit, President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama reached agreements in various areas, including cybersecurity," she said. "China regards cyber crime is one of the most serious crimes, which should be under strict law."

Wu said that within China's legal framework, "we will crack down" on cyber crime by any means, "and we are willing to cooperate with other countries in the world to make stricter regulations to ensure a more secure cyber environment in the international community."

She made her comments at the International Forum for Technology Collaboration and Development in Washington on Oct 9.

It was sponsored by the Chinese Association of Science and Technology, a nonprofit organization of more than 8000 Chinese and Chinese-American scientists and CEOs of IT companies.

"Years ago, with some other countries, China submitted regulations on the cyber environment to the United Nations. And the Chinese government will seek more collaboration with other countries to form more comprehensive rules on cybersecurity," Wu said.

During Xi's visit, the two countries agreed on a number of issues on cybersecurity. Both sides also agreed to establish a high-level joint dialogue mechanism on fighting cyber crime and related issues.

Democratic Representative Dutch Ruppersbkerger from Maryland, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told the forum that it was "tremendous" that Xi and Obama reached agreements on cybersecurity.

In addition to Wu's comment on global standards for cyber security, Ruppersbkerger said: "We have to have global standards. It's important we deal with the issues of what is going on in the cyber world. I think, we two countries, as the most powerful countries in the world, should come together to work out the global standards."

Lieutenant Gen James K. McLaughlin, deputy commander of the US Cyber Command, said it's still too early to say whether the US and China have made any changes on cybersecurity issues since the visit.

"We are hoping for a longer period of time," he said on Oct 9 in an address at the Center of Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

With a more solid foundation of China-US cooperation on cybersecurity, more Chinese and Chinese Americans will be able to develop new technology and IT companies in the US, said Kai Li, a professor in the computer science department at Princeton University.

His storage duplication company was acquired by data storage provider EMC.

Li said that without a secure cyber environment and "the trust we have with the other American IT companies, it would not have been very smooth for me to develop the storage duplication technology."

Zhang Yue and Pan Jialiang contributed to this story.