Beijing on Tuesday expressed "firm opposition" to the Trump administration's sanctions on five Chinese companies connected to a former Google engineer accused of intellectual property theft.

The move "severely harms the legitimate rights and interests" of Chinese businesses, the country's commerce ministry said in a statement.

"The nature of this act is egregious. China firms opposes this." The ministry also urged the U.S. to "correct its erroneous practice" and said Beijing would take "necessary measures," without specifying them.