On October 4, 2017, Attorney General Jefferson B. Sessions III and
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, together with Chinese
State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun,
co-chaired the first U.S.-China Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity
Dialogue (LECD). The LECD is one of four dialogues agreed to by
President Trump and President Xi during their first meeting in
Mar-a-Lago in April 2017 and is an important forum for advancing
bilateral law enforcement and cyber priorities between our two
governments.
The following topics were discussed:
- Repatriation. Both sides acknowledged the need
to make continued progress in the area of repatriation of foreign
nationals with final orders of removal. The United States and China
committed to develop a repeatable process whereby the identities of
individuals with final orders of removal are verified in a timely manner
and travel documents are issued within 30 days of verification. This
process should be finalized within three months following the LECD.
- Counter-narcotics. Both sides intend to
continue to enhance cooperation on narcotics control and enforcement.
Such cooperation may include: exchanging intelligence and operational
information on trafficking of new psychoactive substances and other
synthetic drugs, opioids, and cocaine; combatting the illicit production
and trafficking of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances and
precursor chemicals, with attention to applicable laws, scheduling
actions, and use of express mail and consignment services; exchanging
technical information on the relevant science and law; demand reduction
cooperation; exchanging views on international narcotics control issues
through UN-based and other multilateral forums; and sharing tracking
information for packages between the two countries so as to identify
individuals and criminal networks responsible for narcotics trafficking.
- Cybercrime and Cybersecurity. Both sides
will continue their implementation of the consensus reached by the
Chinese and American Presidents in 2015 on U.S.-China cybersecurity
cooperation, consisting of the five following points: (1) that timely
responses should be provided to requests for information and assistance
concerning malicious cyber activities; (2) that neither country’s
government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of
intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential
business information, with the intent of providing competitive
advantages to companies or commercial sectors; (3) to make common effort
to further identify and promote appropriate norms of state behavior in
cyberspace within the international community; (4) to maintain a
high-level joint dialogue mechanism on fighting cybercrime and related
issues; and (5) to enhance law enforcement communication on cyber
security incidents and to mutually provide timely responses.
Both sides reiterated that all consensus and cooperative documents
achieved at the three rounds of the China-U.S. High-Level Joint Dialogue
on Combating Cyber Crimes and Related Issues since 2015 remain valid.
Both sides intend to improve cooperation with each other on
cybercrime, including sharing cybercrime-related leads and information,
and responding to Mutual Legal Assistance requests, in a timely manner,
including with regard to cyber fraud (including business email
compromises), hacking crimes, abuse of internet for terrorist purposes,
and internet dissemination of child pornography.
Both sides will continue to cooperate on network protection,
including maintaining and enhancing cybersecurity information sharing,
as well as considering future efforts on cybersecurity of critical
infrastructure.
Both sides intend to maintain and make full use of the established
hotline mechanism for addressing urgent cybercrime and network
protection issues pertaining to significant cybersecurity incidents, and
to communicate in a timely way at the leadership level or working
level, as needed.
- Fugitives. Both sides will continue to
cooperate to prevent each country from becoming a safe haven for
fugitives and will identify viable fugitive cases for cooperation. Both
sides plan to continue regular meetings and working groups to identify
priority cases. Both sides commit to take actions involving fugitives
only on the basis of respect for each other’s sovereignty and laws, and
any violation of the above mentioned principles will be addressed in
accordance with law.
While differences remain, both sides intend to make actual
progress on all of the above matters, to make possible another Dialogue
in 2018 to measure that progress.