China, US to hold high-level talks on hacking, cybersecurity

Top US and Chinese officials will convene this week in Washington for the first round of cybersecurity talks following the signing of an anti-hacking accord in September.

China's Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun is in Washington until Sunday and will meet US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Chinese state media reported. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch is also expected to take part in the discussions.

The talks on Tuesday and Wednesday are seen as potentially significant in establishing acceptable norms for cyber espionage. It also marks an ongoing effort to repair relations after China withdrew from a working group last year in response to the US indictment of five members of its military on charges it hacked six American companies.

READ MORE: Chinese hackers tried to breach security at seven US firms since Xi and Obama signed cyber deal, security company says

Cyber security has long been an irritant in relations between China and the United States, despite robust economic ties worth US$590 billion in two-way trade last year.

The September agreement, brokered during President Xi Jinping's official state visit to Washington, included a pledge that neither country would knowingly carry out hacking for commercial advantages.

The pact also underscored a long-standing but unspoken agreement among many countries that hacking in pursuit of traditional espionage purposes is fair game, but infiltrating private sector computer systems for economic gain should be prohibited.

The Group of 20 nations has agreed to a similar set of hacking rules barring espionage on the private sector.