Yes, which is why I say that the argument is circular. It assumes its conclusion. Either a computer program can "understand" Chinese or it can't. If it can't,

Yes, which is why I say that the argument is circular. It assumes its conclusion. Either a computer program can "understand" Chinese or it can't. If it can't, we're done. If it can, then having a non-chinese-speaking human simulate the program won't cause it to stop understanding Chinese. The presence of the human doesn't expose a contradiction in the assumption "a computer program can understand chinese".