China’s Ministry of Commerce expressed its opposition to the US Trade Representative’s recent inclusion of Alibaba Group e-commerce site on a list of “notorious markets” for piracy and called on the US to be more objective in judging China’s intellectual-property rights record, The Wall Street Journal reported. The trade representative had praised Taobao in its report last year for an initiative to provide tips to Chinese authorities on infringing activities; this year, it said Taobao carried listings of pirated and counterfeit goods despite “significant efforts” by the company to address the issue. Alibaba is the operator of consumer-bartering website Taobao Marketplace and the retail website Taobao Mall. Taobao Mall registered more than RMB100 billion (US$15.8 billion) in transactions last year, more than triple the amount from one year earlier.