Xi Jinping seeks to attract Western businesses despite spy agency issuing alerts

China’s counterintelligence officials have warned businesses under Beijing’s jurisdiction that sharing information with Western corporate consulting firms could “seriously endanger national security.”

“Such information, if accumulated to a certain extent and analyzed in a comprehensive manner, can reflect important information about our economic operation, national defense and military,” according to China’s Ministry of State Security.

The warning accompanied a video that outlined a purported incident in which a consultancy exploited its relationship with a Chinese client on behalf of “overseas spy agencies,” as the South China Morning Post explained. The message underscores the fraught dynamics of international economic relationships that Chinese officials are keen to expand, even as the communist regime and Western powers view each other with increasing suspicion.

“We will provide broader development space for U.S. and other foreign businesses,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Thursday. “In the business cooperation, the two sides should stay committed to mutual respect, mutual benefit, and equal-footed consultation, respect each other’s development rights, and work for win-win outcomes for the two countries and the world at large.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted “representatives of the U.S. business, strategic and academic communities” on Wednesday.

“President Xi Jinping pointed out that the Chinese economy is sound and sustainable,” Lin said. “China did not collapse as predicted by the ‘China collapse theory,’ nor will it peak as forecasted by the ‘China peak theory.’ China’s reform will not pause, and its opening up will not stop. We will provide broader development space for U.S. and other foreign businesses.”

China’s emergence as a major economic power has come with significant security risks, according to Western officials. Chinese telecommunications companies such as Huawei are regarded in Western circles as platforms for Beijing’s spy agencies, in part due to a national security law that compels cooperation with the communist regime. TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media app, is at risk of being banned from the United States, and U.S. intelligence officials reportedly have warned Congress that a different Chinese company “had transferred U.S. intellectual property to Beijing without consent,” according to Reuters.

“We are not aware of any unauthorized transfers by WuXi AppTec of any U.S. client’s data or intellectual property to China,” a spokesman for WuXi AppTec said Thursday. “Safeguarding our customers’ information is of the utmost importance to us, and we store it in keeping with their direction.”

The global heavyweights also traded allegations about cyber espionage and promoted internal warnings to mitigate putative vulnerabilities. U.S. officials and several allied governments, for instance, unveiled allegations that a Chinese hacking group has targeted Western politicians in a sprawling hacking spree.

“Foreign interference of this nature is unacceptable, and we have urged China to refrain from such activity in future,” New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Tuesday. “New Zealand will continue to speak out — consistently and predictably — where we see concerning behaviors like this.”

Peters’ statement dovetailed with parallel allegations from the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as from Finland. Chinese officials have denied the charge, which they bracketed with their own warning about a foreign hacker.

“The foreign hacking group has also infiltrated hundreds of networks of domestic business and government units, in preparation for larger scale criminal activities,” the state security ministry claimed last week.

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The Chinese agency did not identify the corporate consultancy accused of working with foreign spies, but “several foreign consulting companies [have been] targeted in raids” over the last year, as the South China Morning Post noted. The raids stoked anxiety in corporate circles that “economic pragmatism … has taken a back seat to the ideological and national security priorities,” as the New York Times put it.

“The U.S. companies are optimistic about China’s development prospects, will maintain their strong commitment to the Chinese market, and pursue close and long-term cooperation with China,” Lin maintained.