Mitt's fake Chinese Apple store

MITT IN A BINDER ABOUT APPLE STORE CLAIM: Among the facts Mitt Romney distorted, either intentionally or inadvertently, in Tuesday night’s Presidential Debate, was this line: “There’s even an Apple store in China that’s a counterfeit Apple store, selling counterfeit goods,” he said in response to a question about the outsourcing of American jobs. “They hack into our computers. We will have to have people play on a fair basis, that’s number one.” The Republican candidate has been corrected in this morning’s edition of the Wall Street Journal, of all news outlets, in a story headlined “Mitt Romney Called Out on Fake Apple Store.” He was referring to photos posted by an American woman working in Kunming of a counterfeit Apple store there that had been faked almost perfectly, down to the blue shirts of the employees and the winding staircase. It turns out the Republican nominee, who has noticeably cranked up his anti-China rhetoric of late, really doesn’t know what he’s referring to—at least not entirely. It turns out that the store in question sells authentic Apple products—it’s one of myriad stores around China that sell Apple products either smuggled into the country or obtained through unofficial channels. “I’m not entirely sure he knows what he’s referring to at this point,” Jessica Angelson, who posted the photos on her blog, told China Real Time. “It is more of a global issue, but it doesn’t create as nice a story as China ripping off Apple stores.” A salesman from the Kunming store interviewed by China Real Time said today that the store was still open, and that there were “no problems” with its operations. Apple declined to comment. (10/17a)