China has made tremendous efforts over the course of the last 15 years, fulfilling its commitments to the organization. These views were echoed by one senior fellow from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who added that the country should be considered 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," said Yukon Huang, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for Int't Peace.

"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."