At a joint press conference Friday afternoon, Presidents Barrack Obama and Xi Jinping reached an agreement not to conduct or support cybertheft in each others countries for commercial gain.
Tensions were high leading up Xi’s first state visit due to accusations China breached the Office of Personal Management’s computer system, stealing the personal information of 21.5 million federal employees and contractors in December.
Xi said he wants to avoid confrontation and politicizing the issue and hopes to find “ways to achieve mutual benefit through cooperation.”
While the leaders may have come to an agreement, the commander in chief sounded skeptical on whether the Asian superpower would follow through on its word.
“What I’ve said to President Xi and what I say to the American people, the question now is are words followed by actions,” he said.
The president went on to say he won’t hesitate to issue sanctions against any individual or company that uses cyber espionage in China or any other country that violates the agreement.
“We will apply those, and whatever other tools we have in our tool kit, to go after cybercriminals either retrospectively or prospectively,” he said.
The United States loses approximately $445 billion dollars a year due to cyber theft.
“I indicated that it has to stop,” Obama said. “This is progress, but I have to insist that our work is not yet done.”
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