[csense]

How do they know some entrepreneur won't buy a boatload of them, export them from China to France or Indonesia or wherever, then re-export them to the US?

Especially if said entrepreneur is working with (or an outright front for) US intelligence, so they're sophisticated enough at this game to run an Airtag detector over the cargo when they transfer it from the ship the Chinese know about to the one they don't.

[namaria]

That is how Russia sells lots of its oil, how the US got titanium supplies for the SR-71 from Soviet Union and will most definitely happen. But it is also very inefficient and will drive up costs.