The United States will make China a significant focus of its beefed-up efforts to fight global piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. goods ranging from CDs to manufactured products, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

It's fair to say China raises a particularly troubling set of issues, Victoria Espinel, the U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator, said in prepared testimony to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

Therefore, China will be a significant focus of our enforcement efforts as we address intellectual property infringement abroad, Espinel said testifying on the Obama administration's new intellectual property enforcement strategy, which was mandated by Congress.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance, which represents U.S. copyright industry groups, has estimated lost sales in China at more than $3.5 billion in 2009 due to piracy of U.S. music, movies and software.

U.S. manufacturers also complain that China's counterfeiters rip off their goods and sell them in markets around the world, including the United States.

Whether it's coordinating our law enforcement personnel overseas, developing a strategy to go after foreign-based websites or using policy tools to address the competitive disadvantages that we face, China will be a priority, Espinel said.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Intellectual Property China