[New accusations that Chinese hackers had attacked highly
sensitive American material were brusquely dismissed by China, even as the American
delegation, headed by Mr. Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, tried to
press cyberespionage as an important issue at the conference.]
By Jane Perlez
 |
Secretary of State John Kerry, in Beijing on
Thursday, said there was no
United States strategy to be in conflict with China.
Credit Pool photo by Greg Baker
|
BEIJING — Seeking to put the best face on a difficult
relationship with Beijing, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the
United States and China could find ways to manage their differences and had
more in common than not.
Neither side wanted to fall into the “trap of zero sum
competition,” Mr. Kerry said at the conclusion of an annual strategic and
economic dialogue between top officials of the two countries.
The array of topics with some areas of agreement — climate
change, Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan — attested to the viability of the
relationship, he said.
Still, Mr. Kerry used fairly blunt language in an effort to
persuade President Xi Jinping that the United States did not intend its 60-year
system of alliances in Asia to encircle and contain China.
“We mean what we say when we emphasize that there’s no U.S.
strategy to try to push back against or be in conflict with China,” he said, as
Mr. Xi sat beside him during a farewell session at the Great Hall of the
People.
Mr. Kerry was indirectly replying to charges by Chinese
officials that President Obama had reinvigorated America’s network of alliances
in Asia with the idea of containing China and its fast modernizing military. In
response, Mr. Xi has initiated a campaign that calls for a new security
architecture of Asia for the Asians.
New accusations that Chinese hackers had attacked highly
sensitive American material were brusquely dismissed by China, even as the American
delegation, headed by Mr. Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, tried to
press cyberespionage as an important issue at the conference.
The Foreign Ministry dismissed assertions in an article in The
New York Times that Chinese hackers had infiltrated United States government
computer systems that house personal information of federal employees.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the article was part
of what he called an irresponsible anti-China smear campaign.
The article, first published Wednesday on the
newspaper’s website, said the hackers had gained access to some of the
databases of the Office of Personnel Management before authorities in the
United States detected the breach and thwarted further access. It remained
unclear what kind of information, if any, was compromised in the attack, which
was said to have happened in March.
Asked about the article at a regular Foreign Ministry press briefing, a spokesman,
Hong Lei, repeated China’s longstanding position that it opposes cyberhacking.
“This is what we say and what we have been doing,” he said.
“Recently, some American media and Internet security firms keep playing the
card of China Internet Threat and smear China’s image. They cannot produce
tenable evidence. Such reports and comments are irresponsible and are not worth
refuting.”
Asked about the article at a closing news conference, Mr. Kerry
said that he and Mr. Lew had been unaware of the attack described in the
article and did not raise it with Chinese officials, although the broader
subject of cybersecurity was discussed.
“We were notified about
this alleged incident minutes before coming out here,” Mr. Kerry said.
He said the article was about attempted “intrusions” that were
still being investigated and it did not appear that sensitive material had been
compromised.
A senior American official who participated in sessions with the
Chinese on Thursday said the case of the hacking into the Office of Personnel
Management was not raised by either side. The official spoke on the condition
of anonymity in order to talk about a delicate matter.
The Chinese, angered by the indictment by the Justice Department
in May of five members of the People’s Liberation Army on charges of
cyberespionage, refused a request at the dialogue by the Americans to restart a
joint cyber working group.
China suspended the work of the group that brought together
American and Chinese negotiators to discuss cyber issues and has complained
that National Security Agency documents made public by Edward J. Snowden showed
the United States had used cyberespionage to gain economic advantage.
Mr. Xi, who invited the American and Chinese delegations to meet
him Thursday afternoon at a session that was partly open to reporters, called
on the two countries to work on building a “new model of major country
relationship,” a phrase he frequently uses to imply an equal status between the
United States and China.
It is an expression that the Obama administration has been
reluctant to endorse for fear that it would confer legitimacy to China’s
various territorial claims, including in the East China Sea and South China
Sea.
The Obama administration sent senior officials to the dialogue,
including Janet L. Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve; Michael Froman,
the United States trade representative; Ernest Moniz, secretary of energy;
Penny Pritzker, secretary of commerce, and John D. Podesta, counselor to
President Obama, who specializes in climate change.
The Americans appeared pleased about what they called serious
discussions on how to reduce carbon emissions. The presence of Mr. Podesta, who
the Chinese know is close to Mr. Obama and is committed to climate change
policies, added weight, they said.
A joint working group on climate change announced that both
countries would develop new greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy
standards.
“This effort has to be mutual and has to be accompanied by
commitments which are defined by the actions we will actually take,” Mr. Kerry
said. “It’s not about one country making a demand of the other.”
Even so, China’s chief climate official, Xie Zhenhua, said
China, which still considers itself a developing country, should not be subject
to the same rules for greenhouse gas emissions as the United States, suggesting
that Beijing will oppose attempts to impose them at next year’s world climate
conference in Paris.
Rick Gladstone contributed reporting
from New York.
