Alibaba founder Jack Ma has stirred controversy after stating that Chinese-manufactured counterfeit goods are now even better than the genuine products they are imitating. His statement has complicated the efforts being made to weed out fakes from Alibaba's platforms such as TaoBao.

Speaking at an investor conference organized in Shanghai, Ma said, "Where there is money, there are bad guys. We don't have police or a court, we just have a group of young people using technology to fight against them. This is a war against human instinct."

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He also stated that today some fake items are of better quality than the original. "They are exactly the [same] factories, exactly the same raw materials but they do not use the names," he said. Ma, however, insisted that intellectual property rights should be respected.

In 2015, Alibaba was sued by Kering, a Paris-based parent company behind luxury brands such as Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci. The company alleged that Alibaba encourages and profits from the sale of counterfeit goods on its sites.

As a result, Alibaba Group's membership was suspended by the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition in May this year. Alibaba has also been investigated by Chinese regulators over concerns about fake goods.

Alibaba has released a statement explaining that its founder's remarks were not meant to be construed as a defense of fake products.

Alibaba expects its 2017 revenues to increase by 48 percent on a year over year basis.

TagsJack Ma, Alibaba, Gucci