“I raised once again our very serious concerns about growing cyber-threats to American companies and American citizens,” Obama said. “I indicated that it has to stop.”

Obama said that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed in principle that “governments don’t engage in cyber espionage for commercial gain against companies.”

“What I’ve said to President Xi and what I say to the American people is, the question now is, are words followed by action?” Obama said. “And we will be watching carefully to make an assessment as to whether progress has been made in this area.”

By avoiding mention of the Chinese government role in cyber attacks and cyber espionage, the president appeared to be signaling that aggressive sanctions on Beijing over the OPM attacks are unlikely.