The U.S. should impose sactions against Chinese companies that violate intellectual property, said Michael R. Wessel, a member of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, at a hearing held Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Many Chinese internet companies that have gone public in the U.S. such as Baidu, Sohu and 163.com will be affected if Wessel's proposals are authorized.

Wessel also proposed that listed companies' performance on intellectual property rights should be supervised in the U.S.

"We can file a lawsuit against the management staff, whose companies have violations of intellectual property rights," he said.

Xunlei Network, a Chinese video and music file-sharing company partly owned by Google, is planning to go public in the U.S. by the end of this year. Michael Schlesinger, who represents the International Intellectual Property Alliance, suggested that Xunlei's performance on intellectual property rights should be reviewed as one of the conditions for its IPO in the U.S.

Some P2P transmission services companies in China, such as Xunlei Network and VeryCD, are directly involved in film and music piracy.

(Source: China.org.cn)