China and the United States must cooperate on combating Internet theft, the United States envoy to China said on Tuesday, the latest comment in an issue that has become a thorn in relations between countries.
Ambassador Gary Locke also told a US-China Internet Industry Forum in Beijing that all countries must find a legitimate balance between governance and a free, open -Internet.
Locke’s comments come a month after US intelligence officials warned that for the first time, cyber attacks had replaced terrorism as the top threat to the United States.
A US computer security company said in February that a secretive Chinese military unit was likely behind a series of hacking attacks that targeted the United States and stole data from more than 100 companies.
Reuters reported that China dismissed the accusation as baseless.