US, China Cyber Security Talks Have Tough Road Ahead

Cyber attacks and hacking incidents are becoming a bigger problem every day. Piracy is continuing to be an issue that the United States wants to take up with various countries around the world as well. Unfortunately for the U.S., the recent revelations brought about by the leaking of Edward Snowden will make it harder to get tough with countries like China. That becomes a real problem considering that the U.S. government alleges that piracy and hacking issues have led to the loss of billions of dollars per year.

Snowden’s leaks have led to China being able to use counter arguments including the fact that the U.S. has been doing a little bit of its own hacking. The pressure to stop China’s piracy and hacking is getting that much stronger with recent revelations that both the U.S. and South Korean militaries have been targeted by hackers. That means that Snowden’s disclosures are having a multitude of effects on international relations.

Despite these setbacks, cyber security is going to be at the center of talks between the two countries. These talks will go a long way toward showing whether the friendly tone that President Obama and China’s president Xi Jinping have is genuine and if it can lead to new agreements. Obama and the U.S. government will again attempt to show that there is a clear line between cyber spying and stealing of proprietary technology that leads to the loss of serious money.

That line doesn’t appear to be drawn for China just yet. The Communist Party’s People’s Daily attacked the United States for being hypocritical. "Differentiating hacking attacks as 'good' and 'bad' is a double standard when it comes to Internet security," the newspaper's overseas edition said in a front page comment.

It appears that the Obama administration had its work cut out for it even before the Snowden affair further muddied the waters.