China Acknowledges US Cyber Hacking, IP Theft Concerns

China has finally admitted that the U.S. has a point when it comes to its concerns about IP theft, forced technology transfer and cyber hacking.

“They have, for the first time, acknowledged that we have a point. Several points,” said White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow on Wednesday (April 3) at an event, according to CNBC. “And I think that has led to, you know, good negotiations,” adding that the acknowledgement happened during trade talks between the two countries.

In fact, Kudlow revealed that China’s President Xi Jinping showed he was open to listening to the U.S.’s concerns during a dinner at the G20 summit in Argentina, where he and U.S. President Donald Trump met.

“President Xi wasn’t saying, ‘No we didn’t, no we didn’t, no we didn’t.’ He was open to listening. And at the lower levels, we heard that. And that’s great progress,” explained Kudlow.

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei — which has been accused by the U.S. Department of Justice in two cases of trade secret and fraud theft — did not come up during the discussions between the two countries.

“The Huawei stuff has generally not come up in the trade talks,” Kudlow said. “We looked at it as a legal matter so far.”

For its part, Huawei claimed in a lawsuit last month that the U.S. law banning government agencies from buying Huawei phones is unconstitutional. While U.S. security experts have warned that China could use the devices to spy on U.S. government agents, Huawei has denied that it would hand its data over to Beijing.

However, a February report revealed that attacks by Chinese hackers against telecom companies have risen in the last year, which could mean China is pushing back against the U.S. decision to ban Huawei from installing 5G technology in the country.