Yes and? 'several times 1000' is multiple year's salary starting at $6800, $6800 for a prototype of a flagship device, or even a structural prototype of a flags

Yes and? 'several times 1000' is multiple year's salary starting at $6800, $6800 for a prototype of a flagship device, or even a structural prototype of a flagship device, isn't unreasonable. Now compare that to minimum wage in the United States which would be 4x (and then some) what the Chinese factory worker is making and, every factory job I've ever seen pays well more than minimum wage here (a quick Glassdoor search shoes 'The national average salary for a Factory Worker is $39,719', more than 10x a Chinese worker). Making an American worker far less inclined to risk termination and prison. And in the case of the article, it mentions an individual stealing thousands of casings. You just aren't going to get enough money out of that to make it worth it for multiple American workers to try and smuggle thousands of units out of a factory, the risk to reward ratio just isn't going to work but at a dollar each and only 1000 units a Chinese worker is walking away with 3 months and change of salary.