The United States has signed no formal agreement with China on cyber issues, a State Department official has affirmed.
“There’s a lot of reporting that there’s going to be a cyber arms control agreement, and that was erroneous reporting, so don’t believe everything you read,” said Christopher Painter, the State Department’s coordinator for cyber issues said on Thursday. “That was never true.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Obama last week on a range of issues, including state-backed hacking of commercial enterprises. The two reached an agreement, in President Obama’s words, that “neither country’s government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.”
The agreement was informal, though the U.S. can impose sanctions on Chinese companies that benefit from such theft.
“I don’t think it makes sense to have a cyber arms control treaty,” Painter continued in remarks given at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “I don’t know what a cyber arm is. I think we can focus on instead is, what are the norms, what are the actions, what are the effects that we think countries … should not participate in.”
“A piece of code could be used for malicious purposes, it could be used for research purposes, it could be used for defensive purposes,” Painter added. “So if you’re looking at more in terms of the effects that you’re saying should be off the table, like attacking critical infrastructure, that’s a more logical way to do it, and it helps the conversation.”
Speaking at the same event, Aaron Hughes, a cyber official at the Pentagon, said, “The proof will be in the pudding. We hope that the agreement, because it comes from the highest levels of the Chinese government, will be one that they adhere to.”
Critics have been skeptical over whether China will abide by the agreement. Asked during a session of the Senate Intelligence Committee this week if he believed the Chinese would abide by the non-binding agreement, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper replied bluntly, “No.”
“I personally am somewhat of a skeptic,” Clapper said. “It will be our responsibility to look for the presence or absence of their purloining of intellectual property and other information.”
