BEIJING — China’s market regulator said on March 9 the government will strictly regulate online commerce, amid a heated public debate on China’s largest online shopping platform Taobao.com which was found to match-make transactions of a great number of shoddy commodities.

“The Internet is definitely not a lawless heaven,” Zhang Mao, minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), said at a news conference on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary session.

“E-commerce platforms have to take key responsibilities,” Zhang said, noting that they should work on promoting “credibility and integrity.”

Zhang also underlined that government regulators should take more measures on protecting the legitimate rights of online shoppers, including proposing new legislative bills and building up online database for stricter supervision over e-commerce.

Results of a SAIC sample test released in late January showed that only 37.25 percent of surveyed commodities sold on Taobao.com were authentic, lower than a 58.7-percent average of major online shopping platforms.