THE U.S. decision to cut off a Chinese chipmaker from U.S. suppliers amid allegations the firm stole intellectual property breaks World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and aims to protect a U.S. monopoly, China told a WTO meeting Tuesday.

Last month the U.S. Commerce Department put Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. on a list of entities that cannot buy components, software and technology goods from U.S. firms. U.S. semiconductor company Micron Technology Inc., a maker of memory chips with factories in the U.S. states of Virginia and Utah, has accused Jinhua and Taiwanese partner United Microelectronics Corp. of stealing its chip designs in a lawsuit in California.

“We consider this an unwarranted charge and firmly oppose the presumption of guilt to our companies,” a Chinese official told the WTO, according to a transcript of remarks.

Washington is concerned the Chinese firm could flood the market with cheap chips of the same type made by U.S. companies.

The Chinese official said that Jinhua had not yet started production and was far from threatening DRAM (dynamic random access memory) circuit manufacturers in the United States.

“In our point of view, the real purpose of the U.S. measures is to maintain the monopoly interests of the U.S. DRAM industry,” he said.

Jinhua and United Microelectronics have countersued Micron in China.(SD-Agencies)