PTI
BEIJING, SEPTEMBER 13
A day after U.S. President Barack Obama warned that cyber attacks from China were “not acceptable”, China on Sunday said it has reached “important consensus” with the U.S. on combating cyber crimes.
The consensus was reached during a visit by President Xi Jinping’s special envoy Meng Jianzhu, a Politburo member of the ruling-Communist Party of China, to Washington, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.Mr. Meng visit took place ahead of Chinese President Xi’s first state visit to the U.S. later this month, dates for which are yet to be announced.
During the visit from Wednesday to Saturday, Mr. Meng exchanged in-depth views on tackling outstanding issues of law enforcement and security, including cyber crimes, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
Mr. Meng, who led a delegation composed of officials from the ministries of public security, state security, justice and information technology, said that against the backdrop of frequent incidents in cyberspace, it is especially important for the two countries to enhance mutual trust and cooperation.
Stressing China’s firm stand against cyber attacks and commercial cyber espionage, Mr. Meng said anyone who conducts such acts in the Chinese territory violates the laws of China and will be subject to legal liability.
China-U.S. dialogue and cooperation on combating cybercrime serve the common interest of both countries and the international community, he said.
His comments came as reports from Washington quoted Mr. Obama as saying during the weekend that cyber attacks from China were “not acceptable”, a message which he was expected to deliver to Mr. Xi during the Chinese President’s visit.
Mr. Obama said state actors needed to agree to rules in order to stop cyber crises from escalating.
“There comes a point at which we consider this a core national security threat and will treat it as such,” he said.
“We have been very clear to the Chinese that there are certain practices that they are engaging in, that we know are emanating from China and are not acceptable,” he said.
In the toughest message so far, Mr. Obama said states could “chose to make this [cyberattacks] an area of competition”.
But, he warned, if that path was chosen, it would be a competition that “I guarantee you, we will win if we have to,” media reports here quoted the U.S. President as saying.
“Alternatively, we can come to an agreement in which we say this isn’t helping anybody, lets instead have some basic rules of the road,” he said.
Chinese state media slams U.S. for Europe’s refugee woes
In a string of commentaries, Chinese state media has slammed the United States for triggering the flood of refugees into Europe, following its military interventions in Afghanistan, West Asia and North Africa.
A hard-hitting commentary in Xinhua counselled the United States to see the wave of refugees into Europe as a wakeup call to reverse its flawed foreign policy.
“Especially for the United States, it is high time to reflect upon its foreign policy as history and facts have shown that forcibly promoting its ideologies is dangerous and armed interventions can only bring about perilous outcomes,” the write up observed.
Contrary to the focus on the handling of the crisis, the Chinese media is highlighting the underlying causes behind Europe’s on-going social trauma.
An editorial in the state-run tabloid Global Times has nailed the masterminding of “colour revolutions” – a policy, that analysts say has destabilised many countries by bringing about “regime change”— as the root cause of the refugee flood into Europe, especially Germany and France.
A large number of refugees have been displaced, via Turkey, from Syria, and get preferential treatment from their European hosts. But The Guardian is quoting the head of the European border agency, Frontex, as saying that Arabs from outside Syria were buying counterfeit Syrian passports, to get into Europe as permanent asylum seekers.
The Xinhua commentary points out that, “Entering the 21st century, under the leadership of the United States, Western powers, in order to secure their own safety and interests, have been meddling in regional affairs, waging wars, inciting turmoil, supporting rebels and so on.”
It specifically slammed the U.S. of direct or indirect interventions — widely known as “regime change”-- to overthrow Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, while supporting Syrian opposition to topple Bashar Assad.
Focusing on the radical militant group Islamic State (IS), it said that the dreaded terror group grew out of Syrian opposition, and has thrived in the turmoil and anarchy created by Western intervention.
Another write-up on the state media said that people need to see through that Washington is responsible for the tragedies that the refugees on the move are encountering. “When millions of people around the world were taken aghast by the pictures of drowned three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi lying washed up on a Turkish beach and the massive refugee crisis engulfing Europe, they should see through the fact that the United States is mainly responsible for all the mess,” the commentary observed.
It added that although the United States has pulled out its troops from some countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, “it should be still held accountable for having destabilised these countries in the first place and then leaving them in a hopeless mess”.
The officials commentaries from China, a top ally of Russia, echo the perceptions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Without mincing words he pointed out that the “dual campaigns of regime change in Libya and Syria are responsible for unleashing the untold suffering that has affected millions of people in these formerly stable and well-off countries”.
