CHINA suffered heavily from trade protectionism which has been rising after the outbreak of the global financial crisis, a Ministry of Commerce official said in Tianjin on Saturday.

Commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian said that some countries resorted to expanding exports to boost economic recovery after efforts to stimulate domestic demand failed, and even depreciated their domestic currencies and increased subsidies to raise competitiveness of domestic exports.

"Such moves lead to rising trade protectionism," Yao told a forum on international trade development held in the northern port city.

Yao said 19 economies launched 88 investigations into Chinese products in the first nine months of this year, involving US$10.2 billion of exports.

The number of probes rose 29 percent and the value jumped 125 percent from the same period of last year, Yao said.

"The United States' trade disputes with China are increasing," he said.

In the first nine months of this year, the US launched 14 probes into Chinese exports, with a total value of US$5.84 billion, soaring 639 percent from a year earlier.

Last Thursday, the US decided to slap preliminary anti-dumping duties on made-in-China steel pipes. It was the biggest US trade action against China to date, topping an earlier move to put a 35-percent tariff on US$1.85 billion worth of Chinese-made tires. Last year, Chinese steel pipe exports to the US were worth US$3.2 billion.

Yao also said China's exports to major economies fell after the outbreak of the global financial crisis but the market share of Chinese products in these economies was rising.

According to Yao, China's exports to the US were US$184.9 billion from January to September, down nearly 15 percent from a year earlier. But the imports from China accounted for 18.84 percent of total US imports, up 3.88 percentage points annually in the first nine months.