U.S. President Barack Obama said that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed not to conduct or support cybertheft of business secrets, after a meeting on September 25.
Obama said that the agreement was in progress and added that the "work is not yet done."
Xi promised that China would respect the “norms of behavior” in cyberspace.
"China strongly opposes and combats the theft of commercial secrets and other kinds of hacking attacks," Xi said at a joint news conference with Obama in Washington.
China has been blamed for a large number of hacks on government agencies and foreign companies.
The leaders also discussed China's disputed territorial claims, which have irked U.S. partners in Asia.
Xi said that "islands in the South China Sea since ancient times are China's territory" and the country "has the right to uphold its own sovereignty."
But he did promise respect for freedom of navigation and overflight.