TRADE TALKS CROSS INTO CYBER

U.S.-China trade tensions are poised to come to a head this week when President Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and a major component of those talks will likely focus on intellectual property (IP) theft.

Federal officials have repeatedly accused Chinese hackers of stealing trade secrets, saying those actions are the underlying reason for billions of dollars worth of tariffs on imports from China.

And while trade talks are expected to dominate the conversation between Trump and Xi at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, lawmakers on Capitol Hill say they expect the two leaders to discuss the economic espionage that has plagued American companies for decades.

“I don’t know how you could have a conversation without bringing it up,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday.

Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the same day that Trump should “absolutely” raise the issue with Xi. “We’re not really seeing a dramatic decline in IP theft,” Warner added.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) alleged last week that China continues to conduct economic espionage despite the U.S. trade penalties.

“China shows no sign of ceasing its policy and practice of conducting and supporting cyber-enabled theft and intrusions into the commercial networks of U.S. companies,” USTR wrote in its assessment, arguing that tariffs are needed to counter China’s hacking efforts.

China has denied the allegation.

How Trump is fighting back: The Trump administration’s weapon of choice for combating cyber theft has been tariffs, and the president upped the stakes for the Xi meeting earlier this week when he told The Wall Street Journal that he was leaning toward slapping another series of tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, including popular electronics like iPhones that are manufactured in China.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said at a press briefing Tuesday that intellectual property theft was one of the topics that needed to be resolved in order to reach a trade deal with China.

While intellectual property theft from U.S. companies has been a common practice by China for decades, cyber experts told The Hill that hackers have been more aggressive in recent months, with some adopting new tactics that are more destructive and make it more difficult for them to be detected.