Chinese President Xi Jinping (front-row-center), poses for a photo with a group of CEOs and other executives at Microsoft's main campus in Redmond, Washington September 23, 2015. Front row L-R: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, JD.com's Liu Qiangdong, Cisco's John Chambers, Alibaba's Jack Ma, IBM's Ginni Rometty, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, China's Internet czar Lu Wei, Apple's Tim Cook, Tencent's Pony Ma, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Middle row L-R: Sohu's Zhang Chaoyang, AMD's Lisa Su, Lenovo's Yang Yuanqing, Microsoft's Harry Shum, Qualcomm's Steve Mollenkopf, CETC's Ziong Qunli, Intel's Brian Krzanich, Qihoo 360's Zhou Hongyi, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, and SINA's Cao Guowei. Back row L-R: Sugon's Li Jun, Didi-Kuaidi's Cheng Wei, Broadband Capital's Tian Suning, CEC's Liu Liehong, Baidu's Zhang Yaqin, AME Cloud Ventures' Jerry Yang, Inspur's Sun Pishu, AirBnB's Brian Chesky, and Sequoia Capital's Shen Nanpeng. [Photo/Agencies]

Jeffery A. Bader, former special assistant to the president of the US for national security affairs, said the two countries have some common concerns.

"One is to prevent any sabotage of infrastructure," said Bader.

"Neither of us want to see our banking system or traffic control system, electricity grid, dams or hospital systems being sabotaged through cyber means, which would be very disturbing to the US and China.

"China doesn't wish to do that to the US and vice versa," Bader said.

He expects to see some kind of agreement between the two nations, "where they commit to taking steps to ensure there will not be any sabotage of infrastructure systems".

Teng Jianqun, a senior research fellow of US studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said the key was whether the two nations could reach consensus on cooperating over security of the public in both countries when they discuss cybersecurity.

Those attending the forum included Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, and Ginni Rometty, chairwoman and chief executive officer of IBM.