China’s first cyber security law will increase costs for multinationals, leave them vulnerable to industrial espionage and give Chinese companies an unfair advantage, business representatives and analysts have warned. Aspects of the measure, which comes into force on Thursday, have been widely welcomed as a milestone in introducing much needed data privacy. But analysts have expressed fears it could help Beijing steal trade secrets or intellectual property from foreign companies, the Financial Times reports. “The law is both extremely vague and exceptionally wide in scope, potentially putting companies at risk of regulatory enforcement that is not related to cyber security,” said Carly Ramsey, associate director at Control Risks, a risk-management consultancy. Foreign companies had petitioned Beijing to delay the legislation. The law is part of a drive by Beijing to shield Chinese data from the eyes of foreign governments after US whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the US was spying on communications from multinationals, say analysts.