Guo Shengkun to head talks on law and cybersecurity

State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun will be in the United States from Tuesday to Friday to chair the first round of a China-US dialogue on law enforcement and cybersecurity.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang announced the trip on Tuesday, adding that the dialogue is being held to implement the important consensus reached by the countries' top leaders.

Observers noted that the China-US dialogue marks the success of Beijing and Washington convening their first round of meetings for the four high-level dialogue mechanisms built during the meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump.

The reinforced communication between high-level working teams will pave the way for fruitful outcomes during Trump's state visit to China in November, the analysts added.

During their face-to-face meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, in April, Xi and Trump announced that the two countries had established four high-level dialogue mechanisms, focusing on diplomacy and security, economy, law enforcement and cybersecurity, and society and culture.

The first round on diplomacy and security was held in June, the first on economy was held in July, and the first on society and culture was held last month, all in Washington, DC.

Xi mentioned the law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue during calls with Trump twice in September. He said that the two sides should strengthen exchanges and ensure the success of the first round of the law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue.

As part of advancing cooperation between law enforcement bodies, some of China's most wanted fugitives suspected of economic crimes were returned by US authorities earlier this year.

Cybersecurity has become a thorny issue as US authorities, in some cases, have claimed that China was the source of a number cyberattacks targeting the US.

In a meeting with visiting US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in Beijing on Sept 25, Guo, the state councilor and minister of public security, said both sides should make the upcoming dialogue a success, deepen cooperation between the two departments and introduce a new chapter in China-US law enforcement cooperation.

Talking to Rosenstein on Sept 26, Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China, said it is paramount for both countries and for the world that China and the US join hands in addressing emerging threats for global security.