Chinese authorities raided three advisory firms over the past few months which offered investigative and strategic analysis for the Chinese market to foreign investors. Their staff -all Chinese nationals- were detained, one of them was sentenced to six years in prison for “stealing national secrets”. Alfred Wu, a researcher based in Singapore, said that it is unclear why the authorities recently took intensive moves against foreign companies, when Beijing has said it was seeking to boost the economy after the lifting of harsh anti-Covid measures.