U.S. and China: Strategic Cooperation at Arm’s Length

As the 8th round of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED) drew to a close on Tuesday, Chinese fighter jets buzzed a U.S. reconnaissance plane in the South China Sea—highlighting that underneath the promises of greater bilateral cooperation, tensions continue to simmer between the world’s two strongest powers. While progress was meagre, both sides agree in principle, if not practice, on many of the world’s most pressing security issues.

Among areas for strategic cooperation, cybersecurity is an issue where Beijing and Washington strongly believe cooperation is necessary but have the greatest difference in opinion on how to solve it. According to Adam Segal, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, “The U.S. has a national interest in an open, interoperable, and secure internet” whereas China believes in “cyber sovereignty—the idea that states have the right to regulate the internet.” The two sides made progress in 2015 with an agreement on cyber espionage, but additional progress at the SED was not forthcoming.

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