BEIJING - Chinese rating agency Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. on Friday rebutted accusations that Dagong has abused its "AAA" ratings, saying that such criticisms are "inappropriate."

Dagong made the statement in response to media reports claiming that the agency has doled out 156 AAA ratings since August 19, 2010, to entities including the Ministry of Railways (MOR) and local government financing vehicles. Many financial analysts consider the local financing vehicles to be a threat because of debt default risks.

"Of all the bond issuers that Dagong has rated, only 39 of them were given AAA ratings, accounting for 11.47 percent of the total," Dagong said.

The company further defended its ratings by stating that bond issuers may have several credit rating reports because they launch several bond products every year. Each product may have as many as three separate credit rating reports with the same rating, the company said.

Dagong said it has set up an independent and professional credit assessment organization and developed a comprehensive assessment management system. "Credit ratings, including the AAA ratings, all go through very strict assessments," it said.

According to the agency, giving AAA ratings to 39 bond issuers should not be considered unreasonable in comparison to the large number of bond issuers in the country.

As of Thursday, there were a total of 1,680 bond issuers in China, of which 220 have been given AAA ratings, Dagong said, citing statistics from Wind Information, a Shanghai-based financial data provider.

Dagong recently made headlines for giving an AAA rating to the MOR, which came under public fire after last month's fatal train collision. The ministry's rating is even higher than that of China's local currency debt rating of AA+, casting further doubts on the company's rating methods.

Dagong defended itself by saying that the rating was given because of the MOR's status as a government agency backed by central government revenues, as well as the ministry's sufficient capital influx and strong financing ability.