File photo: China US

The so-called Notorious Markets List of the US, which claims that China continues to be the No.1 source of counterfeit products in the world, is political hype that aims to smear China, observers said, urging Washington to stop generalizing the national security concept and make solid progress in promoting bilateral cooperation that benefits the world.  

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on Tuesday released the findings of its 2023 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, also known as the Notorious Markets List, claiming that China remains the No.1 source of counterfeit products in the world.

The 2023 Notorious Markets List identifies 39 online markets and 33 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy. This includes continuing to identify the China-based e-commerce and social commerce markets Taobao, WeChat, DHGate and Pinduoduo, as well as the cloud storage service Baidu Wangpan.  

"This list is obviously politicized, rather than fact-based," Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The list also obviously ignores China's continuous progress in protecting intellectual property rights, experts said.

China had about 4.02 million valid domestic invention patents as of the end of last year, up 22.4 percent year-on-year, the country's top intellectual property regulator said on January 18, 2024.

Hu Wenhui, deputy head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, told a news conference that with this achievement, China became the first country in the world to hold more than 4 million valid domestic invention patents.

"High-value patents accounted for over 40 percent of the total, which shows that China has become a veritable IP power and has consistently contributed to global innovation," he said. 

Apart from the list, Washington has mulled a slew of measures against China. On Tuesday, the US Congress considered new ways to restrict US investment in China that involves sensitive technology, according to a report from the South China Morning Post.

The hearing by the House Financial Services subcommittee on national security was held to build on President Joe Biden's executive order banning US investments in four Chinese tech sectors, the report said.

In another apparent move to hamper the regular business operations of Chinese companies, US authorities launched on-site searches at a Chinese-funded company's North American office.

The US side has repeatedly conducted surprise probes of Chinese-funded companies, disturbing Chinese businesses and businesspeople, seriously affecting normal business operations and undermining the confidence of Chinese companies in investing in the US, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Tuesday.

In response to recent intensified ill-intended moves by the US, the MOFCOM spokesperson urged the US to immediately cease its harassment of Chinese companies and businesspeople, and provide them with a safe, transparent and fair business environment.

China will closely monitor the situation and firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens, the spokesperson noted.

"The serious moves deserve attention, because we need to pay attention as to whether the US is planning a new round of sanctions against China," Gao said.

The latest US move is in stark contrast to its statements that it is ready to keep growing economic and trade relations with China and does not seek to contain or suppress China's development, and it runs counter to the common understandings reached between the leaders of the two countries in San Francisco, Zhang Hong, a close follower of China-US relations, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"Only cooperation will benefit relations between China and the US, and 'decoupling' will only reduce US companies' shares in the Chinese market, which has vast opportunities amid the sound and stable recovery of its economy," Zhang said.

A recent survey conducted by the Global Times Institute found that entrepreneurs' confidence in the world's second-largest economy in 2024 is solid. Many company executives said that against the backdrop of multiple challenges facing the world economy, China's economic development has shown great resilience and potential in the past year, resulting in high confidence in the country's economic development for 2024.