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Cyber security has long been an irritant in relations between
China and the United States, despite robust economic ties, worth
$590 billion in two-way trade last year.
An attack on the U.S. government's Office of Personnel
Management, revealed this month, compromised the data of 4
million current and former federal employees, raising U.S.
suspicions that Chinese hackers were building huge databases
that could be used to recruit spies.
Last year China shut down a bilateral working group on cyber
security after the United States charged five Chinese military
officers with hacking American firms.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Internet
security was something that the international community needed
tackle together, as it was a common problem.
"China and the United States had previously always had a good
dialogue mechanism on issues of Internet security. Because of
reasons that everyone knows about, and not because of China,
this dialogue has stopped," Lu told a daily news briefing in
Beijing.
"Speaking by seeking truth from the facts, resuming these talks
probably needs the United States to properly handle the relevant
issue to create conditions for dialogue," he added.
More than 400 Chinese officials are in Washington for the annual
talks under the wide-ranging Strategic and Economic Dialogue
(S&ED) framework, which will involve eight U.S. cabinet
secretaries.
The meetings come at a time of waning trust and widening
differences between the two countries. U.S. concerns have been
mounting about Beijing's challenge to its dominance of global
finance and about curbs on U.S. businesses in China.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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