Hong KongCNN —
China’s state security authorities raided multiple offices of international advisory firm Capvision, state media reported Monday, part of a broader crackdown on the consulting industry as Beijing tightens control over what it considers sensitive information related to national security.
Officers raided Capvision’s office in the eastern city of Suzhou, questioned its employees and searched office devices, a Jiangsu provincial television station reported Monday. The company was a so-called expert network, which connected its clients with people who provided specialist knowledge, largely in mainland China.
The report did not give an exact date of the raid, but said it was part of a coordinated, nationwide operation carried out simultaneously targeting the company’s branches in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen as well as Shanghai, where Capvision was founded in 2006.
The consultancy firm, which is headquartered in Shanghai and New York, adds to a growing list of global consulting companies that have been ensnared in Beijing’s widening crackdown on what it perceives as national security risks.
Over the past weeks, Chinese authorities have questioned staff at the Shanghai office of US consultancy Bain & Company, and closed the Beijing office of Mintz Group, an American corporate due diligence firm, while detaining five of its local staff.
State security police said Capvision frequently contacted personnel with access to classified information in the Chinese Communist Party and the government, as well as in industries such as national defense and science, according to the Jiangsu TV report.
Police also accused Capvision of hiring consulting experts with “high remuneration to illegally obtain various types of sensitive data” and “posing a major risk” to China’s national security, the report said.
Capvision said on its official WeChat account on Monday it would “firmly implement national security development” and “take a leading role in regulating the consultancy industry.”
CNN has reached out to Capvision for comment.
A former client of Capvision, who works in due diligence in Hong Kong, told CNN the raids took place late last year.
“Everybody is worried about what’s going on,” said the source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “Things have just been getting worse and worse and worse [for the consulting industry].”
The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said Tuesday it was concerned by recent reports about investigations of US due diligence and consulting companies in China.
“It would be helpful if the authorities would more clearly delineate the areas in which companies can or cannot conduct such due diligence,” its President Eric Zheng said.