Cyberspace deal crucial

During President Xi Jinping's visit to the US, through deep, sincere and constructive talks with US President Barack Obama, the two leaders have achieved consensus on a variety of issues, of which cyberspace is an essential one. The visit and the negotiations achieved will open a new horizon for the two nations to strengthen cooperation in the cyberspace.

Their consensus will, first of all, lay a sound basis on global cyberspace governance. The key debate over cyberspace governance lies on how to draft rules that meet the demands of various sides, with the focus being intellectual property rights protection and crimes in the cyberspace. They reached a "common understanding" on steps to curb cyber spying, agreed that neither government would conduct nor support economic espionage in cyberspace, and promised to enhance efforts in combating cybercrime and sharing related information. These lay a solid basis for the forming of international rules in the cyberspace.

More importantly, the consensus makes it possible for the two countries to eliminate misunderstanding on cyberspace, like sources of hacking. China has always been a victim of hacking and a strong defender of cybersecurity, yet the US often blames it for attacks whose sources cannot be tracked. The two leaders have made clear that both should react to the other's request of help in time according to their own laws and international obligations, and agreed to open a hotline on the issue.

Just like President Xi said, Sino-US cooperation benefits both while their quarrel hurts the interests of both. That applies in the cyberspace as well and their consensus on the issue is key to promoting cooperation.

Wang Chuang is a researcher in cybersecurity at CCID Think Tank, affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Bilateral ties improving

President Xi Jinping's fruitful visit to the United States will serve as a robust boost for the realization of a new model for relations between major countries, a key concept put forward by Xi to promote ties between China and the US two years ago.

For starters, the pragmatic cooperation and mutual trust between the two nations have reached a new height, given the 49 agreements that were reached during the summit between Xi and his US counterpart Barack Obama on Sept 25, which cover a variety of areas such as investment, people-to-people exchanges, climate change and coordination in multilateral affairs.

In these agreements,China showed full respect to the US' interests and influence in Asia,while the US in return welcomed more Chinese enterprises-including State-owned ones which have so far struggled to enter the US market to invest in the country and enjoy the favorable policies enjoyed by other foreign investors.

Besides, both governments agreed to apply the principles of non-conflict, non-confrontation, and mutual respect in addressing some sensitive matters, for example, the cyber security clashes which at one point put the two countries on the brink of launching sanctions. And both countries are now expected to take measures to promote cooperation on mutually identified corruption cases, a big leap for China's ongoing anti-graft campaign.

Admittedly, some US politicians are still reluctant to give credit to the China-proposed new model for major country relations, but the improving bilateral interaction proves that both countries have reached a consensus on preventing their disparities from dragging them into a global confrontation.

Huang Renwei is deputy director of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.