Cybersecurity in Focus as Obama, Xi Meet

Will it be a big bragging session?

Ahead of the summit meeting between the leaders of the U.S. and China, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said cybersecurity is the biggest source of friction in the relationship between the countries, and a threat to the global economic system,

The issue will likely be near the top of the agenda when U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping start their first summit meeting Friday the Sunnylands estate in California. Their meeting comes as the disclosure of a broad U.S. government effort to collect phone records of millions of consumers has rekindled the debate on privacy and civil liberties.

"Cybersecurity is the biggest point of conflict, and the biggest threat to the relationship. When foreign governments or companies steal intellectual property or trade secrets from U.S. companies, that's very different from governments gathering information from other governments," said Mr. Paulson, speaking to The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the Fortune Global Forum in Chengdu.