US WeChat and AliExpress blacklists of counterfeit items

WASHINGTON (AP/BLOOMBERG) – The United States has put Chinese services WeChat and AliExpress in a list of markets notorious for offering counterfeit goods. The Office of the United States Trade Envoy prepares this list each year. This time there are 42 online and 35 physical markets on the list.

WeChat, which is owned by large tech group Tencent, is known outside China as a chat service, but the Chinese can control almost everything from the app. They can also shop there. AliExpress, from Alibaba, is also known in the Netherlands as a marketplace where almost everything is for sale.

Remarkably, AliExpress is not the only service from Alibaba on the list. Taobao, who also belongs to that group, has been listed for some time, as has competitor Pinduoduo. The cloud service of the Baidu search engine and e-commerce service provider DHgate.com are also among the Chinese companies on the list. Nine physical markets in China are also included.

With the list, the United States wants to encourage countries to do more to combat the production and sale of counterfeit items. Americans have long referred to China as the main source of counterfeit goods.