Hi Christine,
As of June 30 2011, PayPal and Alibaba ended their partnership but no reason was disclosed by both parties as to why. To read more about the announcement - Link hidden: Login to view
Escrow and PayPal are two different companies and function separately. As stated on their site, all payments are done via Escrow which means that payment will only be released to the supplier once you have confirmed satisfactory delivery. However, if delivery is not confirmed within 30 days of receipt, payment will automatically be released to the supplier.
To do a credit card payment please refer to this, Link hidden: Login to view
Hope this helps :)