London, Nov. 16: China is running an "aggressive and large-scale industrial espionage campaign" against American technology, a US congressional commission has said in a report that could exacerbate growing tensions between the two countries.

The hard-hitting report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission accuses China of backsliding over free trade reforms and of using spies to enable its companies to get hold of technology without having to pay for the research, reports The Telegraph.

"Chinese espionage activities in the United States are so extensive that they comprise the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies, " it said, adding that scientists and engineers were enlisted to get hold of secrets "by whatever means possible - including theft".

"China's interest in moving toward a free market economy is not just stalling but is actually now reversing course, " Carolyn Bartholomew, the commission's chairman said.

While Europe's concern over China mainly relates to trade restrictions, voices in both the Democrat and Republican parties in the United States draw attention to both the economic and military threats they say the Asian giant's rising power poses.

The bipartisan report said that there were national security implications to the transfer of technology to Chinese companies.

The report follows the test shooting down of a satellite by a Chinese long-range missile, revealed by the Pentagon in January, and this week's admission that America was itself developing a new generation of space-based weaponry.

The report also referred to other common complaints about China's rise, such as widespread piracy of products, the "devastating environmental effects" of its coal-based and poorly regulated economy, and what it called the manipulation of its currency to make it unfairly competitive.

Many of America's biggest firms profit from Chinese trade practices, using the country as a manufacturing centre or a source of products. But the report said that small and medium-size American firms "face the full brunt of China's unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation and illegal subsidies for Chinese exports".

There was no immediate comment from China, but before the report was published it denied allegations of spying. (ANI)