China Signals Spying Fears Amid Probe of Consulting Firms

China signaled through state-run media that its national security agencies are engaged in a nationwide investigation into whether the due-diligence industry that has grown up to serve Western businesses in the country has been used for foreign espionage.

State broadcaster China Central Television and other official news outlets said that amid Western pressure on China, profit-oriented consulting firms sometimes have a weak awareness of the country’s national security concerns, and had frequently operated at the edge of legality to gather information in sensitive sectors of the military, the defense industry, the economy and finance. CCTV said some consultants in China have caused harm to national security, ultimately becoming accomplices to the West in “spying, buying and extorting state secrets and intelligence.”