404 — Emulating US, where he spent time as youth, China's President plans to lead new cybersecurity working group

Not to be outdone by US expenditures on cyber-warfare and cybersecurity, Chinese President Xi Jinping promises to lead new cyber working group. Well, considering how effective their cyber soldiers have been so far (bringing down many US sites, and penetrating even more), I hate to see what they'll do when they actually concentrate on this. Check out this story from The New York Times.

President Xi Jinping, 60, on an unannounced visit in Beijing earlier this week.

China’s President Will Lead a New Effort on Cybersecurity

By DAVID BARBOZA

SHANGHAI — President Xi Jinping is presiding over a new working group on cybersecurity and information security, China announced on Thursday, a sign that the Communist Party views the issue as one of the country’s most pressing strategic concerns.

The government said Mr. Xi and two other senior leaders, Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Liu Yunshan, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, would help draft national strategies and develop major policies in a field that might include protecting national secrets and developing digital defenses, among other goals.

“Efforts should be made to build our country into a cyberpower,” Mr. Xi said in a statement released after the first meeting of the group on Thursday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The announcement comes as Mr. Xi is solidifying power, mounting a bold crackdown on corruption at the top of the Communist Party and pushing through overhauls aimed at strengthening and restructuring the country’s economy.

In his first year in office, Mr. Xi, 60, seems determined to signal that he is firmly in control, amassing powers that some analysts say hark back to Deng Xiaoping’s tenure as the country’s supreme leader.

Late last year, Mr. Xi was named to head a leading working group on overall change and a state security committee that some experts say was inspired by the National Security Council, which advises American presidents. He has also presided over a government that has tightened control over the news media and Internet microblogs. [NOTE: Let's not forget that Xi Jinping spent time in Muscatine, Iowa, as a young lad. No wonder he's emulating us so. ED]

The high-profile group on cybersecurity and so-called informatization could be aimed at grappling with one of the thornier issues that emerged in Mr. Xi’s first year in office: disputes with the United States over cyberattacks and debates over national security leaks.

The Obama administration has strongly challenged China over the past few years to curb what it contends are Chinese cyberattacks on Americans and American companies doing business in China. Among the concerns is that Chinese hackers, possibly state sponsored, have been stealing corporate and national secrets. [NOTE: This makes it sound like we don't do this, which is not the case. The NSA has also targeted foreign businesses for penetration (e.g. Brazil's energy companies), and we have no idea what they've done with that information. But, the fact that they've targeted Brazil's Big Oil concerns probably tells you something. Who do you think they're feeding that information to?Same goes for the NSA's penetration of telephonies in Europe. ED]

Beijing has responded that it, too, has been a frequent victim of cyberattacks, many originating in the United States. The Chinese government has also insisted that it opposes hacking in any form.

The issue was one of the most delicate that came up in June when Mr. Xi joined President Obama for a summit meeting at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Analysts say the talks between the two powers have grown more complicated since revelations that the National Security Agency has engaged in widespread spying around the world, even against American allies.

Experts say the issue has major implications for large corporations in the United States and China, which could find themselves blocked from doing business in the other country in areas like telecommunications or Internet security.

China now has the world’s second-largest economy, after the United States, and the largest number of Internet users, more than 600 million. But Chinese authorities complain that the country’s science and technology abilities lag far behind those of more developed countries.

The government announcement on Thursday did not offer details about what cybersecurity and informatization would cover, but the government made clear that it was determined to strengthen its abilities.

“No Internet safety means no national security,” Mr. Xi said Thursday. “No informatization means no modernization.”