US demands China stop cyberattacks against US computer networks
12 Mar 2013
The White House called on the Chinese government yesterday to stop the widespread theft of data from American computer networks and agree to ''acceptable norms of behaviour in cyberspace.''
The demand, came in a speech by president Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon, and was the first public confrontation with China over cyber-espionage. The demand came two days following China's foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, rejecting a growing body of evidence that the Chinese military was involved in cyberattacks on American corporations and some government agencies.
According to Donilon, the White House was seeking three things from Beijing - public recognition of the urgency of the problem; a commitment to crack down on hackers in China; and an agreement to take part in a dialogue to establish global standards.
''Increasingly, US businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyberintrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale,'' Donilon said in a wide-ranging address to the Asia Society in New York.
''The international community,'' he added, ''cannot tolerate such activity from any country.''
A spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Hua Chunying, without directly saying whether the government was willing to negotiate over the proposals spelled out by Donilon repeated the government's position that it was opposed to internet attacks and said, China wanted ''constructive dialogue'' with the US and other countries about cybersecurity issues.