Many experts say that China has done a commendable job in opening up over the past 15 years --- in doing so fulfilling its promise to the WTO --- and it should  be recognised as a 'market economy'.

"There was a so-called what I would say implicit understanding that by now it would be classified as a market economy. And for sure China has become more of a market economy in the last 15 years. It's liberalized its exchange rate regime. Private, non-state companies are now much more important in terms of the shares of economy than it was 15 years ago. So certainly China has become much more of a market-driven economy than it was 15 years ago," said Yukon Huang, senior fellow of Carnegie Endowment for Int'l Peace.