Beijing, May 9 (IANS): Chinese authorities appear to be running a targeted espionage investigation of foreign consulting firms operating in the country, according to a state media report, after recent raids on the offices of several international firms

The latest known case saw officers raid multiple offices used by the business consulting firm Capvision in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou and Shenzhen, The Guardian reported citing the Chinese state media as saying on Monday.

It followed raids on Mintz Group in March, which saw five employees arrested and the branch shut down.

US management consulting firm Bain & Company said its Shanghai office was visited by Chinese officers in April, and employees questioned.

A report on CCTV on Monday alleged Capvision, which was founded in China and has joint headquarters in New York and Shanghai, had paid employees of Chinese state-owned companies to leak secrets.

It did not say when the raids took place, but reportedly said a multiagency investigation had seen one employee of a state-owned company jailed for six years for providing state secrets to Capvision's overseas clients, the Guardian reported.

The report suggested there was growing suspicions of such firms, as well as domestic companies which work with the due diligence and business research industry.

It said some consulting firms were ignoring national security risks in seeking market share and profit, and becoming "accomplices for overseas espionage, bribery, and extraction of national secrets and intelligence", the Guardian reported.

"In recent years, some western countries have been implementing strategies to contain and suppress China, with increasing rampant activities to steal intelligence information in key areas such as military, military industry, economy, and finance," it said, according to a translation by China analyst Bill Bishop.