Beijing rejected US allegations that China failed to fulfill its commitments in the World Trade Organization, asserting that the country has strictly followed WTO rules and steadily fulfilled its obligations.

Spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce Sun Jiwen said that China thoroughly thinks that trade frictions between the two countries is a normal phenomenon as US-China trade and investment relationship continues to develop.

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission's November 2016 Report to Congress accused China of violating global trade rules.

The report alleged that "China continues to violate the spirit and the letter of its international obligations by pursuing import substitution policies, imposing forced technology transfers, engaging in cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, and obstructing the free flow of information and commerce."

Sun said that China and the US have different understandings regarding the issues of bilateral trade and investment discussed in the report. 

Sun proposed the two sides engage in more dialogue and conduct cooperation to resolve their disputes in accordance with WTO rules in order to contribute more to the multilateral trading system and global economic recovery.

“We should reach a win-win result through equal dialogue and cooperation, and proper resolution of the friction. Both sides should cope with trade friction by abiding by the WTO's rules and regulations,” said Sun.

The report comes at a time when the US is taking aim at trade deficit with China. Concerns about trade tensions between the world's two largest economies were fueled by President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose a 45 percent tariff on imports from China and his nomination of Peter Navarro, a Chinese critic who authored “Death by China,” to head the National Trade Council.

During his first news conference on Thursday, Trump said that American trade deals are a disaster, pointing fingers at China over trade imbalances. The US deficit with China accounts for roughly half of the country's total.

"We have hundreds of billions of dollars of losses on a yearly basis -- hundreds of billions with China on trade and trade imbalance, with Japan, with Mexico, with just about everybody," Trump said.

In a commentary piece for CGTN, Sun Chenghao, assistant research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations said that “the biggest challenge for those officials or Trump is whether they could formulate any grand strategy towards China…It is highly doubtful whether the Trump administration will be able to raise a long-term strategic vision of the bilateral relationship in its first or second year.”

“Under such circumstances, the China policy might be solution-oriented and both countries should pay close attention to prevent risks from escalating to conflicts, especially on the regional hot issues,” Sun said.