China opposes US sanctions on five firms linked to ex-Google engineer

Beijing on Tuesday expressed "firm opposition" to the Trump administration's sanctions on five Chinese companies connected to a former Google engineer accused of intellectual property theft.

The move "severely harms the legitimate rights and interests" of Chinese businesses, the country's commerce ministry said in a statement.

"The nature of this act is egregious.

China firms opposes this." The ministry also urged the US to "correct its erroneous practice" and said Beijing would take "necessary measures", without specifying them.

It came a day after the US State Department imposed sanctions on five Chinese companies connected to Linwei Ding, who founded Shanghai Zhisuan Technology.

The department said he had touted his experience with Google and claimed his company could replicate the American tech giant's super intelligence infrastructure technology.

The start-up incubation programme MiraclePlus, which was sanctioned along with Zhisuan, gave seed capital in exchange for an ownersh