习奥会答记者问全文：习近平奥巴马中美元首会晤

当地时间6月7日，中国国家主席习近平在美国加利福尼亚州安纳伯格庄园同美国总统奥巴马举行中美元首会晤，就中美新型大国关系等问题坦诚深入交换意见，并达成重要共识。此前专家认为，这是一次历史性会晤，两国元首共同规划今后一个时期中美关系发展，进一步确立了努力构建新型大国关系，相互尊重，合作共赢的战略共识，对中美两国乃至亚太地区和世界都具有重要意义和深远影响。

President Obama: Everybody ready? Well, I know we’re a little behind, but that’s mainly because President Xi and I had a very constructive conversation on a whole range of strategic issues, from North Korea to cyberspace to international institutions. And I’m very much looking forward to continuing the conversation, not only tonight at dinner but also tomorrow.

But I thought we’d take a quick break just to take a question from both the U.S. and Chinese press. So what I’ll do is I’ll start with Julie Pace and then President Xi can call on a Chinese counterpart.

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. How damaging has Chinese cyber-hacking been to the U.S.? And did you warn your counterpart about any specific consequences if those actions continue? And also, while there are obviously differences between China’s alleged actions and your government’s surveillance programs, do you think that the new NSA revelations undermine your position on these issues at all during these talks?

And President Xi, did --

President Obama: Why don’t you let the interpreter --

Q: And President Xi, did you acknowledge in your talks with President Obama that China has been launching cyber-attacks against the U.S.? Do you also believe that the U.S. is launching similar attacks against China? And if so, can you tell us what any of the targets may have been? Thank you.

President Obama: Well, Julie, first of all, we haven’t had, yet, in-depth discussions about the cybersecurity issue. We’re speaking at the 40,000-foot level, and we’ll have more intensive discussions during this evening’s dinner.

What both President Xi and I recognize is that because of these incredible advances in technology, that the issue of cybersecurity and the need for rules and common approaches to cybersecurity are going to be increasingly important as part of bilateral relationships and multilateral relationships.

In some ways, these are uncharted waters and you don’t have the kinds of protocols that have governed military issues, for example, and arms issues, where nations have a lot of experience in trying to negotiate what’s acceptable and what’s not. And it’s critical, as two of the largest economies and military powers in the world, that China and the United States arrive at a firm understanding of how we work together on these issues.

But I think it’s important, Julie, to get to the second part of your question, to distinguish between the deep concerns we have as a government around theft of intellectual property or hacking into systems that might disrupt those systems -- whether it’s our financial systems, our critical infrastructure and so forth -- versus some of the issues that have been raised around NSA programs.

When it comes to those cybersecurity issues like hacking or theft, those are not issues that are unique to the U.S.-China relationship. Those are issues that are of international concern. Oftentimes it’s non-state actors who are engaging in these issues as well. And we’re going to have to work very hard to build a system of defenses and protections, both in the private sector and in the public sector, even as we negotiate with other countries around setting up common rules of the road.

And as China continues in its development process and more of its economy is based on research and innovation and entrepreneurship, they’re going to have similar concerns, which is why I believe we can work together on this rather than at cross-purposes.

Now, the NSA program, as I discussed this morning, is a very limited issue, but it does have broad implications for our society because you’ve got a lot of data out there, a lot of communications that are in cyberspace. And how we deal with both identifying potential terrorists or criminals, how the private sector deals with potential theft, and how the federal government, state governments, local governments and the private sector coordinate to keep out some of these malicious forces while still preserving the openness and the incredible power of the Internet and the web and these new telecommunications systems -- that’s a complicated and important piece of business. But it’s different from these issues of theft and hacking.

And every government is then inevitably going to be involved in these issues, just like big companies are going to be involved in these issues. I mean, you’ve got private companies that have a lot more data and a lot more details about people’s emails and telephone calls than the federal government does. And if we’re called upon not only to make sure that we’re anticipating terrorist communications but we’re also called upon to work with the private sector to prevent theft out of ATMs, et cetera, then we’re going to have to find ways to deal with this big data in ways that are consistent with our values; in ways that protect people’s privacy, that ensure oversight, and strike the right balance.

And as I indicated this morning, that’s a conversation that I welcome having.