“and they only make a relatively small markup on assembling the parts, producing that laptop doesn’t contribute as much to their economy as you might think.”
This type of propaganda makes me puke - and to think that much of this is State Dept generated is very discouraging.
Do you know how many manufacturing facilities in this country have been put out of business by product wholly made in China?
They are Counterfieting GM cars, ferraris, Caterpillar engines, specialty gearboxes, multi million dollar extrusion lines,...you name it.
This article glosses over the magnitude but you get the idea.
http://usinfo.state.gov/ei/Archive/2006/Mar/14-403976.html
It is much less common in computer components. Making CDs and DVDs is pretty simple. Making counterfeit clothing is also pretty simple. Making counterfeit ICs is a lot more difficult, and is likely to remain that way because IC fabs cost billions to build. The ones being built in CHina are joint operations with foreign companies (such as IBM) and production capacity is a gets allocated carefully, because there's pretty much always a shortage of something that fab could be making.
Your comments about counterfeiting are valid.
However, my comments we factual. Since you're calling them propaganda, I have to assume that either you didn't read what I wrote very carefully, or you simply have no clue of what you are talking about.