President Obama has decided to welcome Chinese President Xi Jingpin for his first official state visit in September. This is despite China’s increased efforts to steal large amounts of U.S government personnel and military data.
In explaining the reason for this visit having to do with nuclear talk with Iran, White House press secretary, Josh Earnest said, “We value their contribution to that effort, and they have acted constructively alongside other members of the international community to try to prevent Iran, through diplomatic talks, from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Engaging with China is something that has served this country well. There are going to be some areas with China where we’re able to cooperate and some areas where we’re going to compete.”
As for the biggest security breach in US history – the attack on the Office of Personnel Management computer network – the administration hasn’t blamed China for it even though the evidence is overwhelming.
In fact, almost 30,000 attacks have been carried out by Chinese hackers for several years before the OPM attack. As a result of their efforts, 500 of them helped them gain access to Defense Department computer systems.
As for the OPM attack, hackers gained access to almost 4 million records of current federal employees apart from hundreds of thousands with security clearances. Questions are also being asked as to how the government stores information since some of these records date as far back as 1985.
Theresa Payton, in recognizing the threat, suggests that President Obama should get tough about cybersecurity during this visit of the Chinese President to the White House.