On September 25, 2015, the White House and the Chinese government issued parallel statements explaining the various agreements Presidents Obama and Xi reached during Xi’s state visit. On the cyber and technology front, the agreements break no new policy ground, but do create a much-needed umbrella under which concrete, practical steps can be taken to reduce conflict in cyberspace and tensions in the bilateral relationship.

Although the Obama-Xi meeting left plenty to be desired on disputed issues such as cybersecurity and the South China Sea, it was a significant and pleasant surprise that Xi softened some of the most pessimistic sentiments and disarmed suspicions in such a short time, highlighting respect for the U.S. and its people, in appealing words to the American public.

In some ways, Xi’s state visit was really a summit on cyber security, as allegations of spying and theft of national security information and commercial intellectual property have threatened to derail attempts to expand cooperation between the world’s largest economies. The parallels with the nuclear age are obvious, and so is the mutual benefit of cyber detente.

President Xi Jinping pledged that China’s attempts to develop Internet economy and enhance online defense will not exclude Western technologies and best practices, which demonstrated China's sincerity for dialogue and cooperation.

The joint agreement by China and the U.S. may have created more diplomatic minefields than it sought to eliminate. The United States has been focusing much of its cyber diplomacy around criticism of China’s espionage. This U.S. policy effort might be called the “Fort Meade defense,” after the site of NSA headquarters in Maryland.

The joint agreement by China and the U.S. may have created more diplomatic minefields than it sought to eliminate. The United States has been focusing much of its cyber diplomacy around criticism of China’s espionage. This U.S. policy effort might be called the “Fort Meade defense,” after the site of NSA headquarters in Maryland.

A question from a member of the Pentagon’s newcyberwarfare unit the other day prompted President Obama to voice his frustration about America’s seeming inability to deter a growing wave of computer attacks, and to vow to confront the increasingly aggressive adversaries who are perpetrating them.

The Obama administration is proposing economic sanctions to punish Chinese companies benefiting from cyber espionage. As there are few clearly defined ways to account for cyber harm or universal norms in cyberspace, the call for sanctions can perhaps primarily be seen as a political signal aimed as much at domestic audiences as to China.

There is no denying that elements of competition exist in China-U.S. relations, but strengthening bilateral cooperation still forms the heart of the two countries’ policies towards each other.

Despite no public statements made by the U.S. government, China has been implicated in a recent hack of the U.S. Office for Personnel Management. It has spurred a debate on information security, differences between economic espionage and cold war espionage, and the overall bilateral relationship.