U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Staff Report. May 6, 2014. China and International Law in Cyberspace by Kimberly Hsu, Policy Analyst, Security and Foreign Affairs with Craig Murray, Senior Policy Analyst, Security and Foreign Affairs

“The Chinese government states it intends to work with the “international community to promote the building of a peaceful, secure, open, and cooperative cyberspace.” Similarly, U.S. government policy is to “work internationally to promote an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable” cyberspace. 1 While this semantic overlap in officially stated goals suggests strong similarities between China and the United States in their viewpoints on international law and norms in cyberspace, they are more different than similar. China’s participation in a 2013 UN report affirming the applicability of international law to cyberspace is a promising development. The same UN group will gather in 2014 to address some of the more challenging and divisive concepts regarding state responsibility and use of force in cyberspace. Any fractures in the debate at this meeting will likely reflect some of the major differences between the United States and China on cyberspace policy. These differences will likely endure as Beijing is presently unwilling to compromise on issues such as Internet sovereignty and information control, which it judges as critical to the maintenance in power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime.”