Like everything else; caveat emptor. In the case of Chinese goods, one has to be very careful. Many non Chinese companies now put people on the ground in China to oversea manufacturing, and to ensure that what is produced is what was contracted for, rather than what the manufacturer thinks the buyer will accept. There is lots of product going out the back door, or made in a shadow factory just down the road, owned by the manufacturer, and dedicated to making knock off versions of the official product. Many times the local party officials will demand to become partners in a successful enterprise, and then start to direct production to other facilities outside the purview of the customer. Would it surprise anyone to know that much of the counterfeit activity is done with either overt Govt consent, or tacit approval ? Recall that when Apple was negotiating protection of IP within China, the leaders of Apple were shown an Apple store in Bejing.....it seemed to be doing very well, and all products appeared to be "Apple" Only one problem- the store and all products- were FAKE. It was later determined that the store (and others like it for other products/vendors) were opened with approval of the Govt. Allowing Apple leaders to visit the store was a direct warning to them....Apple soon reached an accommodation with the Chinese Govt allowing the later to access to user data, and to censor content within China.
chinese counterfeitng
I own dartzeel amp and preamp. I was checking out pricing and noticed dartzeel amp selling for $650 on ebay. I checked into this and they make it look externally the same but obviously not internally. The sellers were mainly from China. If they can make the amp look real I bet is would be an easy process to fake a cable or anything else for that matter