Donald Trump has met with Jack Ma, one of China’s richest men and founder of the giant e-commerce group, Alibaba.

Trump left the meeting praising Mr Ma as a "great, great entrepreneur" and saying that the meeting had been highly-productive.

"Jack and I are going to do some great things," the US President-elect added.

Mr Ma told reports that the pair think, "that China and [the] USA's relationship should be strengthened, [and] should be more friendly."

Mr Trump's praise came despite his charges that companies in China have been ripping-off US brands and copying their designs.

China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won't help with North Korea. Nice!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017

The US government recently placed a major Alibaba subsidiary, Tao Bao on its "notorious markets" list for counterfeiting in December.

While a 'Make America Great' baseball cap sells for $25 on the official Donald Trump merchandise site - counterfeit versions are being sold for 6.5 yuan or €0.89 on Taobao.

It had been removed from the blacklist four years ago - but US authorities have ruled that its Taobao platform is being used to sell a high level of fake branded products.

Alibaba reports to offer a selling platform to small businesses in the US which can support up to 1 million jobs. It also announced that it will hold a major business event in the US to help small companies to tap into the lucrative Chinese market.

When Taobao was put back on the US blacklist, Alibaba president Mike Evans questioned whether the decision was politically motivated.