BEIJING - The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Monday that China was targeted by more trade remedy probes last year.

Twenty-one countries initiated 77 trade remedy investigations targeting Chinese products, up 11.6 percent from 2011, the ministry said.

The probes involved $27.7 billion, a year-on-year surge of 369 percent, the ministry said.

Among the most notable cases was the European Union's anti-dumping investigation into imports of solar panels and key components from China, which involved over $20 billion.

Early last month, China's permanent representative to the WTO Yi Xiaozhun warned that China should be mindful of increasing trade friction with European countries and the United States, as they are adopting increasingly harsh trade relief measures for Chinese exports.

Over half of the world's countervailing measures are directed against China, according to Yi.

In the first quarter of 2013, China was targeted by 22 such cases, up 22.2 percent from the same period of 2012, the MOC said.