Treasury Secretary Lew says cybersecurity on agenda for US-China talks

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that he will continue to press China toward changing it cybersecurity policies to better protect US companies from intellectual property theft.

Secretary Lew said he hoped to make more progress on closing the gap between the views held by Washington and Beijing over the role governments play in protecting trade secrets during the next round of the US-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue.

"We do not view it as an acceptable practice for governmental entities to participate in the process of securing trade secrets for the economic benefits of firms in their country," Sec Lew said. “We’ve made clear how unacceptable it is for those practices to go on,” he said. “It’s just a difference between how we do business. We just don’t engage in activity like that. We don’t condone it.”

Sec Lew said it is important to continue the cyber discussion, which developed as part of dialogue in 2013. "I'm optimistic that we are going to be able to make some progress again this year," Sec Lew said.