File photo: Xinhua

A Singaporean official has been elected as the next director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in a highly politicized election on Wednesday, in which US officials flagrantly interfered in the process and mounted a fierce and biased campaign against China's candidate and intellectual property (IP) system.

At the election, Daren Tang, the current head of Singapore's Intellectual Property Office, outperformed five candidates from other countries, including China's Wang Binying, the current deputy director general of the WIPO, according to Chinese officials. Tang will replace outgoing director general Francis Gurry of Australia at the end of the year.

Chinese officials and experts said that the result of the election does not change China's stance and efforts to enhance IP protection domestically and its cooperation with the international community. But they harshly criticized the US for politicizing the election and its unfair attacks on Wang.

"First, it reminds us the importance of further improving our IP system. Second, it pushes us to further engage with the global IP community and accumulate more experience," Shan Xiaoguang, dean of Shanghai International College of IP at Tongji University, told the Global Times on Thursday.

But Shan said the election had "obviously" been politicized by the US in an attempt to preserve its dominance in international systems and continue its economic and political assault on China. "The US' interference in the election was of great intensity," he said.

After China nominated Wang, who has spent nearly three decades working at the WIPO, US officials openly lobbied other countries to deny her candidacy, citing long-held and baseless accusations against China's IP system, and even threatened to cut aid for other countries if they did not bend to its will, Chinese officials have said.

 "The US is doing all it can to pressure other countries to give up their support for the Chinese candidate under the slogan of 'Anyone But Chinese'. They've even tried to threaten and blackmail those countries by cutting aids and other disgraceful means," Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said last week.