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President Xi Jinping of China listened as Henry Kissinger, seen from behind, prepared to introduce him at a reception in Seattle on Tuesday.Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

SEATTLE — President Xi Jinping pledged in a speech here on Tuesday night to work with the United States on fighting cybercrime, saying that the Chinese government was a staunch defender of cybersecurity.

“The Chinese government will not in whatever form engage in commercial theft, and hacking against government networks are crimes that must be punished in accordance with the law and relevant international treaties,” Mr. Xi said in an address to American business executives.

At the end of his first day of a state visit to the United States, Mr. Xi told his audience, which also included Chinese business leaders, that “China is ready to set up a high-level joint dialogue mechanism with the United States on fighting cybercrimes.”

Mr. Xi appeared to be attempting to reassure his business audience, many of its members from tech industries at the forefront of cyberspace issues, but how far his words would be believed by the Obama administration remained to be seen.

At a briefing for reporters in Washington on Tuesday, a senior China adviser to President Obama said that “we won’t paper over those differences,” a reference to cyberspace and economic issues. There would be “very robust discussion” with Mr. Xi, said the adviser, Daniel J. Kritenbrink.

Who Is Xi Jinping?

Two weeks before Mr. Xi’s arrival, one of his closest aides, Meng Jianzhu, the head of domestic security, visited Washington to deal with the administration’s accusations that China was responsible for massive cyberattacks on American businesses and government agencies. The Chinese deny the administration’s claims.

The meetings failed to lead to a concrete agreement that the administration had hoped for on how to deal with such attacks, particularly the theft of trade secrets from American companies that benefit their Chinese competitors, according to a senior administration official.

The tone of Mr. Xi’s address across a range of issues was positive, without a jarring word. He refrained from talking about thorny differences with the United States over China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea. On China’s softening economy he sounded a soothing tone, saying that all economies faced difficulties and though China was under downward pressure “this is only a problem in the course of progress.”

He also told his audience not to worry about the Chinese stock market, whose sudden plunge over the summer sent shock waves across the world. He defended his government’s intervention, which failed to stop the fall, saying the “government took steps to stabilize the market and contain panic in the stock market and this avoided systemic risk.”

As Mr. Xi’s advisers prepared him for his trip to the United States, he was encouraged by several Americans to include some personal themes that would resonate with the audience.

He won applause for a line about his anticorruption campaign against government officials not being like the television show “House of Cards.”

The audience also appreciated his anecdote about ordering one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite cocktails, a mojito, when he visited Cuba.

The audience included Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, and the company’s founder, Bill Gates — they sat on either side of Mr. Xi’s senior adviser, Li Zhanshu — as well as other senior executives whose tech firms have suffered in China from the imposition of new, intrusive security measures, commercial cybertheft and demands for transfers of technology.

Mr. Xi addressed some of those concerns with general reassurances but no specifics, saying. “We will address the legitimate concerns of foreign investors in a timely fashion, protect their lawful rights and interests, and work hard to provide an open and transparent legal and policy environment.”

The reactions of the business community to Mr. Xi’s promises may become clearer at a high-level tech forum Wednesday, organized by the Chinese in conjunction with Microsoft, and expected to draw 200 executives.

Jane Perlez, The New York Times’s chief diplomatic correspondent, will be following China's president, Xi Jinping, and documenting key moments of his first state visit to the United States.

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