The relationship between the US and China is of both cooperation and competition, the White House said today, adding it has asked Beijing to investigate its concerns on cyber-attacks.
"We have an important and broad and complex relationship with China. We are the two largest economies in the world. And we engage with the Chinese on an array of issues -- economic, political, cultural, military," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today.
This will be an important topic of a broad conversation about a number of issues between the US President and his Chinese counterpart, he said.
President Obama is meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in California in June.
"What we have been seeking from China is for it to investigate our concerns and to start a dialogue with us on cyber issues," Carney said when asked about the cyber-attacks coming from China.
The US is pleased that China agreed last month to start a new working group along those lines, he said.
Latest media reports say cyber attacks from China tried to access data from nearly 40 US weapons programmes including new missile designs.
Assistant Chinese foreign minister Zheng Zeguang today said his country opposes all forms of hacking and wants to work with the US to counter such attacks.
"Through such a dialogue, we seek longer-term changes in China's behaviour, including by working together to establish norms against the theft of trade secrets and confidential business information," the White House Press Secretary said.
"This is a broad and complex relationship that we have, and there will be wide-ranging discussions on US-China relations, on our economic and military cooperation, the efforts that we can undertake together to deal with global challenges as well as regional ones," Carney said.
"Also certainly a topic of conversation would be North Korea, stability in Asia, expanding our bilateral military ties, climate change and cyber-security.
"And I think we have been clear in our concern about cyber-security, our concern about the fact that there have been cyber intrusions emanating from China," he said.
US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon has just returned from Beijing after preparing the groundwork for the Obama-Xi summit.
