China has urged the United States to evaluate its intellectual property rights (IPR) protection efforts more objectively after the U.S. included several Chinese marketplaces on a list of "notorious markets."
Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), said at a regular news briefing on Wednesday that the list released by the U.S. is "irresponsible and unobjective," adding that it uses "ambiguous wording" and does not feature a detailed analysis.
"China believes that the U.S. should more comprehensively and objectively evaluate the IPR protection efforts made by the Chinese government to avoid undue negative influence on Chinese companies," Shen said.
In December 2011, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released a list of "notorious markets," or markets that "typify the problem of marketplaces that deal in goods and services that infringe on IPR and help to sustain global piracy and counterfeiting," according to a USTR press release.
The list included China's e-commerce giant Taobao and the Silk Street Market in Beijing, as well as some markets in Russia and Canada.