Chinese tech stocks tumble amid US firms' hacking report, Lenovo dips 23%

News of hacking of US companies sours investor sentiment

Shares of Chinese hardware companies fell sharply on Friday, led by computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd which lost more than a fifth of its value.

It was not immediately clear what was the cause, but the declines follow a Bloomberg Businessweek report that US tech companies’ systems had been infiltrated by malicious chips inserted by Chinese intelligence agents.

Bloomberg Businessweek cited unidentified sources from intelligence agencies and business that Chinese spies had placed computer chips inside equipment used by about 30 companies and multiple US government agencies, which would give Beijing secret access to internal networks.

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