China clamps down on access to public data to counter US think tank intel

House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., tells Arthel Neville on'Fox News Live' that'there is nothing' the Chinese Communist Party will not do to'get a leg up' on the world. China has ramped up its efforts to clamp down on foreign data procurement in a move partially motivated by U.S. think tank efforts to monitor hard to find information on Beijing and its "military-civil fusion" strategy, a report by the Wall Street Journal found Monday. As tension and competition between the U.S. and China continues to mount, Beijing has recently taken steps to restrict overseas access to its databases and tighten its control over Western narratives relating to China. An espionage act revised late last month has drawn concern from the international business community, which has argued that the new guidelines could make continuing business with the world's second-largest economy more risky. Western consulting, legal, cyber and auditing firms may find it harder to conduct business with Beijing following President Xi Jinping's move to expand China's power over private entities and control access to data and financial records.