China's MOFCOM warned the US to immediately cease espionage against China, including operations targeting Chinese companies, and to stop actions that harm China’s sovereignty, security and development interests

The operative question is whether the reference to the Anti-Espionage Law remains rhetorical or precedes concrete enforcement: prior episodes in which Beijing cited national security statutes were followed in some cases by raids, detentions, or exit bans affecting foreign firms and advisers operating onshore, which is where the channel to equities and cross-border operations actually runs. The mention of operations targeting Chinese companies keeps this in the commercial-espionage frame rather than pure diplomatic theatre, and that distinction matters for how seriously compliance and risk teams treat it. Escalation sequences in this lane have typically moved through reciprocal official statements, then visa or regulatory measures, before any trade-relevant action, so the follow-ons worth tracking are whether Washington responds formally and whether any named companies, sectors, or individuals appear. Absent a named target or an enforcement step, precedent suggests the statement reads as positioning within an ongoing friction cycle rather than a discrete event with a priced transmission channel.