loading json data from local file into React JS

I have a React component and I want to load in my JSON data from a file. The console log currently doesn't work, even though I'm creating the variable data as a global

'use strict';

var React = require('react/addons');

// load in JSON data from file
var data;

var oReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
oReq.onload = reqListener;
oReq.open("get", "data.json", true);
oReq.send();

function reqListener(e) {
    data = JSON.parse(this.responseText);
}
console.log(data);

// create component
var Accordion = React.createClass({      
  render: function(){
    return (
      <div>
          Accordion component          
      </div>
    );
  }
});

module.exports = Accordion;

Ideally, I would prefer to do it something like this, but it's not working - it tries to add ".js" onto the end of the filename.

var data = require('./data.json');

Any advice on the best way, preferably the "React" way, would be much appreciated!