Jeffery A. Bader, former special assistant to the president of the U.S. 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 U.S. and China.
"China doesn't wish to do that to the U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
