State Dept.: China-Backed Hacking ‘Heightens’ ‘Importance’ of Engaging with China to ‘Raise Those Concerns’ — We Must ‘Manage’ Relations

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller reacted to Chinese state-backed hackers targeting infrastructure in the U.S. by stating that the cyberattack “heightens the importance of us being able to engage openly and honestly with the Chinese government” so we can “raise those concerns” and it’s also “important that we manage the relationship.”

Miller said, “I will say, we’re, of course, always concerned with any illicit attempt to access U.S. critical infrastructure. In this instance, we’ve seen such attempts by an entity sponsored by the Chinese government. So, what we’ve done is what we have tried to do since the beginning of this administration, [which] is work with our partners in the private sector to harden defenses, to share information. It’s been a top priority for us, for the administration to share information with the private sector and for the private sector to provide us information so we can work together on addressing these types of threats.”

He continued, “And as for the broader relation, one of the things I’ll say is that, in our view, this just heightens the importance of us being able to engage openly and honestly with the Chinese government. Obviously, we have a number of concerns about Chinese actions. This is one of them. But there are a great deal of others. And we always want to be able to raise those concerns openly and forthrightly with the Chinese government. At the same time, we think it’s important that we manage the relationship. China is an incredibly important country. It’s important economically. It’s important militarily. It’s important diplomatically. And so, it’s important that we be able to manage that relationship responsibly. I know Secretary Blinken looks forward to being able to reschedule the trip to China that was postponed in February and looks to be able to do so as soon as conditions allow.”

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