China and the U.S. have reached certain consensus on the basic principles of cyber space sovereignty and internet freedom despite of divergences on cyber attack and monitoring, said a senior cyber security expert during a recent interview with People’s Daily.

“The two sides attach great importance to the differences and cooperation in the field of cyber security,” said Lu Chuanying from the office of the central leading group for cyber space affairs. “High-level exchanges between the two sides have been conducted, which will help lay a foundation for further cooperation.”

Because cyber security is a brand-new issue and challenge that the world faces, joint endeavors are needed between the governments, media, enterprises and other stakeholders, said Lu.

Jason Healey, a senior researcher at the Atlantic Council in charge of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative, said that nearly all the countries, either developed or developing, are highly dependent on information and communication technology.

The nature of the cyberspace security determines that it is much easier to attack the network than to defend it, he noted, adding that a basic consensus among the international community is that all parties involved are to strengthen their defense capability.

He said that President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to the U.S. provides a “unique opportunity” for President Obama to secure a strategic agreement with China in order to ease the tensions in the network area as well as to stabilize bilateral relations.

If the U.S. chose to counterattack or retaliate on China or adopt some tough hawkish approaches, the situation may become out of control, he stressed.

Hu Yishan, a senior researcher of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said that the online merchants of China and the U.S. have expanded business in each other’s countries. Both sides are striving to promote network cooperation in many areas such as business transaction, which is conducive to the interconnections between two nations.

He took himself as an example. “When I am in China, I can easily use the PayPal payment system developed in the U.S. and my frequency of use in China is even higher than that in the U.S.. Also, many of the Internet infrastructure construction projects are undertaken by Huawei, a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company. The two sides have a rather good cooperation at this level.”

Hu also noted that at the strategic level, China and the U.S. is still wary of each other and want to prevent each other from posing a threat to their own national security through the Internet.

Yu Xiaoqiu, a researcher at Central Compilation and translation Bureau of China, said that in terms of promoting the international Internet governance and maintaining the security of the global cyber space, China and the U.S. are two big powers with great influence. They should assume their respective responsibilities and obligations, strengthen the dialogue and communication to reach a basic consensus on the principles of network governance and behaviors of cyber security.

“As long as the two sides expand win-win cooperation in the field of information technology and effectively handle their differences in cyber security, China and the U.S. can set a good example for the international community,” Yu noted.