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Reader question: Please explain “knockoff” in this headline: “Why ‘state capitalism’ is China’s biggest knockoff” (Enter the Dragon, by John Cassidy, New Yorker.com, December 10, 2010). My comments: Knockoff is a colloquialism for a counterfeit, a copy of the original product. Usually a copy of the original without permission, hence intellectual property violations. And a knockoff is usually much cheaper than the original, which is why it’s appealing to the average customer. An original Rolex watch worn, for example, by tennis player Roger Federer, who speaks for the luxury brand, may cost up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the Beijing street, however, you may have a counterfeit Rolex for 100 kuai. Here, of course, bargaining is also key. The watch may have a list price for 500 kuai, but if you’re good at bargaining, you may have it for 100 or less. That means you’ve knocked (reduced) 400 kuai or more off its list price. Yes, you can use “knock off” as a verbal phrase. Back to China’s “state capitalism”. In the New Yorker piece, staff writer John Cassidy argues that “state capitalism” is not a Chinese invention. Far from it – it’s just another one of those things China has successfully copied from the West, in exactly the same way that local vendors have made copies of Rolex watches and in the same way Fujian’s shoemakers have churned out NKIE (people easily mistaking it for NIKE) sneakers. | 
