BEIJING (Reuters) - China's commerce ministry said on Tuesday that the United States' "warning" to U.S. companies working in the western Xinjiang region had destabilised the global supply chain.

The U.S. State Department told top American companies including Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT), Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) this month that there were risks in maintaining supply chains associated with what it described as rights abuses in Xinjiang.

China's commerce ministry said the U.S. move had also affected the global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

China would take necessary measures to defend the legal rights of Chinese firms, the ministry said in its statement.

(Reporting by Roxanne Liu in Beijing and Meg Shen in Hong Kong)