As my wife and I were wandering around a tourist-catering market in Puerto Vallarta, we saw the inevitable faux Louis Vuitton and Coach bags awaiting purchase. It’s good to see that none of the vendors of such things actually expect their cruise ship-based customers (which we were not) to believe the wallet, backpack, or purse to be the genuine article. At one shop, where my wife considered a purchase (sorry, LVMH) but didn’t make one, she commented on the copies seeming to be of decent quality material. The proprietor responded “That’s right. We don’t sell any of that Chinese junk here.” That’s right: he took some national pride in selling “Mexican cows, not Chinese cows.” Apparently, the reputation of Chinese quality is not high even here in the land of paper-thin…well, everything. I wonder if Hu Jintao is concerned.