US, China in urgent talks on crucial cybersecurity deal

The United States and China could agree on the cybersecurity deal, which has been under serious negotiations in recent weeks, when the Asian country's president visits Washington on Thursday, 24 September. The US has often accused China of espionage and poaching intellectual data and experts believe that the deal would address the issue of cyber attacks on the country's vitals services.

According to a New York Times report, the agreement would protected against unauthorised use of electronic data of power stations, hospitals and cellphone networks. The US wants China to follow the code of conduct recently adopted by a working group at the United Nations. The key note in the UN document states that no country can allow cyber activity that cripples another's critical infrastructure during peacetime.

When President Barack Obama meets his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, he is likely to focus on getting the deal through as cyber attacks have been troubling the US as intellectual property rights are being breached from Chinese territory. Cybersecurity has been negatively affecting US-China relations.

According to Reuters, on 16 September, the White House had called "for an international framework to prevent the internet from being 'weaponised' as a tool of national aggression". The US president also hinted at "at US forcefully responding to China over hacking attacks".

"The Chinese government resolutely opposes and cracks down on any kind of internet hacking activities. Whoever is carrying out hacking attacks or business espionage in China is violating the country's law and will be punished by law," assistant foreign minister Zheng Zeguang told CCTV.

Also, in recent months, Chinese hackers have slowed down on hacking US companies, which experts say is mainly due to the meeting scheduled between Obama and Xi.