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With Sino-American trade tensions escalating, China's cybersecurity standards could be used as an "invisible tool" of retaliation against Washington's tariffs, according to one expert.

Those so-called standards are government-issued guidelines about things like firewalls and software that are technically voluntary, but are oftentimes treated as mandatory by foreign firms' Chinese business partners. Over the past several years, Beijing has issued close to 300 new national standards, Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report earlier this month.

Those additions are contributing to China becoming an increasingly difficult market for some firms, the report said, explaining that the new standards could potentially hit foreign-owned firms with unforeseen costs and delays for operating in China — or they could even lead to companies shutting down their Chinese businesses.

Now, there's some concern that Beijing would use its standards regime to retaliate against the U.S. as the countries exchange salvos in their trade war.

And, if Asia's largest economy were to weaponize tech guidelines to hit American companies, the cost would be difficult to quantify, but the effects on foreign firms could long outlive current tensions, according to the report.

Reference: CNBC

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/15/us-china-trade-war-chinese-cybersecurity-standards-could-be-employed.html