It's always a good thing when governments, especially superpowers, strike agreements toward the goal of peace and prosperity.

The accord President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Friday—a "common understanding" to curb state-sponsored, corporate cyber espionage toward one another—inches us toward that goal if we assume both sides would uphold their end of the bargain.

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"We’ve agreed that neither the US nor the Chinese government will conduct or knowingly support cyber theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information for commercial advantage," Obama said during a press conference with the Chinese leader at his side. Obama added that economic cyber-espionage "has to stop." For his part, the Chinese leader said, "Both governments will not engage in or support online theft of intellectual property."

It's a momentous first step at a historical stage in which the battlefield is evolving online—from the real world to the virtual world. And it comes as both sides are engaged in finger pointing on the topic and accusing the other of cyber transgressions.

But even assuming both sides would follow the pact, the accord is tall on rhetoric and short on substance. The deal, for instance, defines the method of enforcement as requiring the two nations to create a "high-level joint dialogue mechanism," according to a joint statement from Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson. More important, the two superpowers make no commitment not to hack one another for intelligence-gathering purposes. That means the recent hack of the Office of Personnel Management's background investigation data—5.6 million sets of fingerprints from US federal employees, contractors and other federal job applicants—doesn't run counter to the accord. The OPM hack is believed to have originated in China and the data, as Ars has previously reported, is "in the hands of the foreign intelligence services of China."

Lynch and Johnson conceded that the deal does "not resolve all our challenges with China on cyber issues."

Regarding the deal's enforcement protocol, the US side of the "high-level joint dialogue mechanism" includes representatives from the FBI, "the US Intelligence Community and other agencies," Lynch and Johnson said. China's participation includes members from a variety of agencies, including the Ministry of Justice and the State Internet and Information Office, they said. This dialogue is being created "as a means of ensuring that these commitments are upheld and responses are provided in a timely and comprehensive manner," they said.

This dialogue will enable both sides to periodically assess our progress; address any issues related to investigative cooperation or information exchanges; and outline means for relevant agencies on both sides to enhance cooperation. Further, the two countries will establish a hotline to address urgent issues or difficulties that have not otherwise been successfully resolved. We look forward to scheduling the first session of this dialogue before the end of the calendar year.

At the same time, however, Lynch and Johnson took the occasion to thump their chests, jointly saying the US will defend the deal and China better "do the same."

"The United States is prepared to fulfill our commitments and make reciprocal efforts. We expect China to do the same and have been clear with the Chinese government that their words must be matched by actions."

As recourse, unspecified US economic sanctions on China have been "on the table" for weeks.

Would an economic sanction be in the form of the US not honoring its Chinese debt? Of course not. That would set off a global panic, as China is the largest foreign holder of US debt, and controls an estimated $1.47 trillion of US Treasuries. Would an economic sanction amount to the US blocking the importation of iPhones and all other electronics produced in China? Of course not.

We could go on and on with this line of reasoning, meaning the threats of economic sanctions against one of the world's largest economies, for the moment, ring hollow.

What doesn't ring hollow, however, is that the only certainty under this entire US-China cyber deal, even with all of its shortcomings, is that the connected part of the world is watching whether both sides adhere to it.