The US and China have reached an agreement on guidelines for requesting assistance on cybercrime or other malicious cyberactivities, the US Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
The agreement was reached in talks in Washington this week among officials including US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Chinese Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun (郭聲琨).
The US Department of Justice said that in addition to the agreement, China and the US would conduct “tabletop exercises” in the spring with a number of scenarios designed to improve understanding of the expectations for response and cooperation.
The talks had long been planned to follow a landmark agreement between the two nations reached in September. The next round is scheduled for June next year, the US Department of Justice said.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security said the agreement would have a “major impact” on the implementation of Internet security measures, adding that the two sides resolved to maintain frank discussion on the issue.
The statement made no mention of a report from Xinhua news agency this week on the hacking of sensitive personnel records on people holding security clearance at the US Office of Personnel Management last year.
Xinhua said the hacking was criminal, not state-sponsored.
The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that multiple people had been arrested in that hacking case, which compromised data on more than 22 million federal workers, though people close to US officials involved said they believed it was a legitimate intelligence target and a government-sponsored intrusion.
US officials have said they are unaware of any evidence demonstrating that the hacked data had been used for any nefarious purposes.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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