Beijing, June 13 -- Western businesses claim that China is requesting private company information in order to get rare earths and magnets, which raises concerns about possible data exploitation and trade secret exposure, according to a Financial Times report.

According to some businesses and official directives, Beijing's commerce ministry is requesting production information and private client lists as part of its export certification procedure for vital minerals and magnets, the Financial Times said.

Rare earth processing and the production of the magnets that employ them are dominated by China. According to the Financial Times, Beijing has a considerable amount of influence with its trading partners because these magnets are widely u...