State Department spokesman John Kirby indicated Tuesday that the State Department isn’t pressing China too hard — at least yet — on the role it might have played in the theft of personal data from up to 18 million people through the Office of Personnel Management.
The two countries met in Washington Tuesday for the start of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, amid several questions about whether the U.S. would push China to explain its actions, since unnamed U.S. officials have said China seemed to be behind it.
But Kirby refused to answer questions about whether and how the issue would come up, and said he wasn’t sure it had yet.
“I can’t confirm specifically that the breach at OPM was discussed,” he told reporters during the first day of meetings. “I would point to what I said yesterday. Cybersecurity issues routinely come up, and as I sort of alluded to in my opening statement, we certainly expect that cyber issues will be discussed — have been discussed today — and will continue to be discussed throughout the afternoon.”
When asked if he knew whether the issue was brought up, Kirby said, “I do not.”
On Monday, Kirby seemed to indicate that the issue may not come up at all. When asked if the OPM breach would be raised, Kirby said only that cybersecurity issues would come up, and refused to say more, pointing out that the U.S. has not officially blamed China.
“I’m not going to get into this specific breach,” he said. “There’s, again, no — been no allegation of responsibility.”
On Monday, an unnamed State official repeated that cybersecurity would be an issue in the talks, as it always is, and said the OPM hack would “certainly be talked about in very direct terms,” both in this week’s meeting and elsewhere.
When asked again if the issue would be raised directly, the official said, “Certainly the issue will be addressed, I think, in pretty direct terms with the Chinese.”
Kirby was asked Monday whether that means the U.S. is essentially acknowledging that it thinks China played a role in the breach, but Kirby seemed to reject that idea.
“There’s been no allegation levied against any actor, state or non-state, with respect to that particular breach,” he said. “It remains under investigation by the FBI.”
Top U.S. officials only mentioned the broad issue of cybersecurity in their opening remarks of the bilateral meeting on Tuesday. John Kerry, for example, listed cyber issues after first noting work that the two countries will do on oceans.
“We will devote a special session to coordinating oceans policy, which is hugely important environmentally, economically and obviously from the perspective of international order and law,” he said. “And we look forward to a very frank discussion of cybersecurity and other ongoing concerns, such as internet freedom, human rights and religious liberty.”
“We remain deeply concerned about government-sponsored cybertheft from companies and commercial sectors,” added Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who didn’t mention theft from the U.S. government. “The United States and China have a shared interest in ensuring that the Internet continues to drive growth and prosperity worldwide. We look forward to discussing these matters further.”
