BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese forestry official says that Greenpeace's recent criticism of China's timber trade is "baseless", arguing that there is a clear distinction between normal trade and illegal logging.

    Spokesman Cao Qingyao with the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said the country's imports of timber and forest products are under tight scrutiny. Under Chinese law, three organizations -- the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs and the SFA -- are tasked with monitoring the sector.

    He agreed that illegal felling and other anti-ecological incidents tend to occur in backward, unstable economies, but said that normal trade was in no way responsible.

    "Knee-jerk criticism is no way to resolve such problems," he said at a regular press conference. "You have to adopt a developmental perspective and strike a balance between economic development and environmental protection."

    Environmental group Greenpeace has claimed that China's timber industry is complicit in the illegal felling of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea's merbau trees, a valuable red hardwood in Southeast Asia, with logs smuggled to China and exported as floor boards and furnishings to the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.

    Cao said the outsourcing in China's timber industry is a result of globalization and expanding overseas market.

    SFA figures reveal that China's annual supply and demand for timber products -- such as lumber, paper, paper pulp and furniture-- is roughly 325 million cubic meters. China has caps on the felling of merchantable timber.