China restricts access to public data to counter US think tank intelligence" title="China restricts access to public data to counter US think tank intelligence" />

China has stepped up its efforts to crack down on foreign data procurement in a move partly motivated by efforts by US think tanks to control hard-to-find information about Beijing and its “military-civilian fusion” strategy, it said. find a Wall Street Journal report on Monday. .

As tension and competition between the US and China continue to rise, Beijing has recently taken steps to restrict foreign access to its databases and tighten its grip on Western narratives related to China .

A revised espionage law late last month has raised concerns among the international business community, which has argued that the new guidelines could make it riskier to continue doing business with the world’s second-largest economy.

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Western consulting, legal, cyber and audit firms may find it more difficult to do business with Beijing after President Xi Jinping’s move to expand China’s power over private entities and control access to data and financial records.

But according to unnamed sources familiar with Beijing’s efforts, the increased restrictions appear to be due to growing concern among top Chinese officials about the information that US analysts have been able to obtain through the use of available information publicly

China’s push towards “military-civilian fusion” – which the State Department describes as “aggressive” – ​​has been of particular interest to US think tanks.

The department has detailed the Chinese strategy as a ploy to remove “barriers between China’s civilian research and commercial sectors, and its military and defense industrial sectors” in a move to improve its “People’s Army of Liberation (PLA) into a “world-class army” “by 2049”.

But Beijing’s military integration of the commercial sector does not only use its own private sphere.

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China’s notoriously ambiguous policies toward foreign private companies and its potential access to corporate intelligence have long worried Western officials, prompting North American think tanks and analysts to Americans looked to publicly available information for answers.

A June 2022 report by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology titled “Silicon Twist” appears to have struck Chinese officials as particularly troubling, as it focused on how the Chinese military was accessing “advanced chips” produced by private companies Americans in Taiwan and South Korea, sources said. the Wall Street Journal.

Analysts were reportedly able to detail how the PLA gained access to these chips after viewing thousands of publicly available purchase records and financial data.

The information these think tanks can acquire has been used by US lawmakers when it comes to implementing Washington’s trade and security policies with Beijing.

The Center for a New American Security’s findings have also been used in testimony to a congressional panel called the US-China Security and Economic Review Commission on the military’s use of intelligence Beijing’s artificial intelligence to strengthen its combat capabilities.

But as Beijing continues to limit access to data and financial information, analysts and investors alike are increasingly concerned about the even greater potential for an ambiguous future when it comes to the economic relationship and US policy with China.

Isaac Stone Fish, CEO of Strategy Risks, a China-focused venture firm, told Fox News Digital: “Beijing wants companies to work more and more with the Chinese Communist Party, while Washington wants them to reduce their exposure to the Party It is an important decision that every large American company must make: companies can no longer stand on the sidelines.

“They have to lean one way or another. They also need to understand that both Beijing and Washington want them to choose,” he added.

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