WeChat was among six online Chinese platforms and nine bricks-and-mortar sellers added to the list in 2022. At the time, the USTR accused the Tencent app of becoming an increasingly convenient conduit for buying imitation products through its “seamless” links to third party e-commerce sites selling fake goods.

ByteDance-owned Douyin Mall, the e-commerce platform of TikTok’s Chinese sister app, made the list for the first time in 2024 for the “rocketing” increase in the amount of counterfeit goods and its “ineffective” reaction to take them down, according to the USTR. Other Chinese e-commerce sites, including Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao, PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo and Chinese wholesale marketplace Dhgate, remained on the latest list, along with Baidu’s cloud storage service Baidu Wangpan.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The removal of WeChat from the notorious seller list came days after the US Department of Defence added Tencent, China’s most valuable company, to a list of Chinese military companies that Washington believes pose a threat to US national security.

Tencent said the designation was “clearly a mistake” and plans to initiate a reconsideration process, or “undertake legal proceedings” if necessary, in an attempt to remove it from the list.

The latest US moves shook investor confidence in some of China’s biggest private tech companies ahead of the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump on January 20.

On Thursday morning, Tencent’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose 1.6 per cent to HK$375.20 (US$48), breaking a losing streak that started when news broke of the military designation.

This is not the first time Tencent has become a target of US scrutiny. In 2020, the Trump administration attempted to ban WeChat in the US, citing national security concerns. That executive order was revoked in 2021 by President Joe Biden.

The latest USTR report noted that China remained the biggest source of counterfeit goods in the world, contributing to 84 per cent of the value and 90 per cent of the total quantity of counterfeit goods seized by US customs in 2023.

The notorious market list has been published since 2011 to raise public awareness of IP, but being on the list does not reflect legal violations, according to the USTR.