A quarter of firms that are members of a leading US business lobby
in China have been victims of data theft, a report by the group said on
Friday, amid growing vitriol between Beijing and Washington over the
threat of cyberattacks.
26 percent of members
who responded to an annual survey said their proprietary data or trade
secrets had been compromised or stolen from their China operations, the
American Chamber of Commerce in China report said.
"This
poses a substantial obstacle for business in China, especially when
considered alongside the concerns over IPR (intellectual property
rights) enforcement and de facto technology transfer requirements," the
Chamber said.
A US computer security company,
Mandiant, said in February that a secretive Chinese military unit was
likely behind a series of hacking attacks that targeted the United
States and stole data from more than 100 companies.
That set off a war of words between Washington and Beijing.
US
representative Dutch Ruppersberger said last month that American
companies suffered estimated losses of more than $300 billion in 2012
due to trade secret theft, much of it the result of Chinese hacking.
China
says the accusations lack proof and that it is also a victim of hacking
attacks, more than half of which originate from the United States.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei called the survey a "completely irresponsible action."
"We
hope the relevant side doesn't politicise financial and trade problems,
does not exaggerate the so-called issue of online leaks and does more
conducive things for China and the United States," Hong told reporters.
The Chamber's survey was conducted among 325 members across China late last year, before the release of Mandiant's report.
Only
10 percent of companies in the survey said they would use China-based
cloud computing services, with most citing cybersecurity concerns as a
reason. Blocked internet searches in China had impeded business for 62
percent of respondents.
US officials have
pressed China to address internet attacks and cyberspying against
American companies. US president Barack Obama raised hacking concerns in
a phone call with Chinese president Xi Jinping earlier in March.
A
recent assessment by US intelligence leaders said for the first time
cyberattacks and cyberespionage had supplanted terrorism as the nation's
top threat.
Investment stagnation
Most firms expressed optimism about the business outlook in China, with many reporting higher margins for their China units.
But
companies gave lower expectations for investment and cited rising
labour costs as a top concern. Perceptions that China's investment
environment is stagnating are increasing, according to the survey.
"Members...
have not felt over the last four or five years that there have been
commercially significant positive changes in the business environment or
the investment environment," Chamber president Christian Murck told
reporters.
"When you have an economy which is
making a transition to a market economy, but which is not yet there,
there is a feeling that if you are not moving forward with an indicated
path of future policy that you are effectively moving backward," he said
at a briefing on the survey.
The Chamber's
survey also cited a steep rise in concerns over IPR enforcement, with 72
percent of respondents saying enforcement was ineffective or totally
ineffective, an increase of 13 percentage points over last year.
Perceptions
that technology transfer was increasingly a requirement for access to
China's market also jumped 10 points to 37 percent, the Chamber said,
with higher rates of concern reported in the aerospace, automotive,
chemical in information technology sectors.
