Perhaps there firearms they sell us are of a lower quality than those they use domestically . You can love your norinco 's I don't really care for them AFIC the quailty on the norcs is best at water line they function that's about all they do . You can buy anything and everything you want in China. If you feel that you want to invest in China go ahead nothing stopping you .
Darn... got me before the delete.
I remember when I was in the CF, before I got my PAL, I really wanted a C7. The big turn off was the supposed $2000 price tag for a Diemaco. Once I got my PAL, the entry level for a non-Chinese AR was in the $2000 range (all in for mags, optics and around 1000 rounds of ammo) - and even that turned me off (house-poor 23 year old's can't fork out that kind of money for those kinds of toys, and if they are sensible, they shouldn't buy them).
I think as has been said, $700 for an out of the box shooter is a killer deal and I think the fact that Norinco is the provider for the Chinese (and many other national militaries) give them a lot more credibility than they get. Furthermore, by flooding the Canadian market with inexpensive, quality firearms, Norinco has been a real game changer in FAVOUR of the firearms community in Canada.
Personally, I think too many North American's fall into the trap of believing the "North American" branding somehow justifies a higher sticker price - and I think that's ludicrous. Following this logic, to get into the AR scene with enough ammunition to train with to the point that you know what you're doing, you'd have to pay $2000-$2500 for a stock, "North American" manufactured rifle and ammunition.
Conversely, thanks to Norinco, you can get into the game for half that price. The same can be said with 1911's, Sig's, 870's, SKS's (well - not really), and pretty much any firearm of any style, used in any shooting discipline you can think of.
In these troubled economic times, everything boils down to cost. With western nation's economies in the dumps, conceivably for a generation (or more), higher costs are going to result in smaller markets for EVERYTHING. Smaller markets lead to smaller demographics. Smaller demographics easily fall victim to the alter of political expediency.
That being the case, could you imagine what the Canadian Federal Government's response would be if there were half as many AR owners as there are now, when well connected, well funded lobbyists start petitioning it to "do something" about gun violence? The beauty of the Canadian firearms market is that all the Norinco owners act as an economic buffer to protect their brethren who paid twice as much for their own guns from gun grabby governments.
The value to that alone cannot be understated.
When an 18 year old kid with his PAL forks out $1200 to buy a Nork CQ and 1600 rounds of Norinco .223 - he's doing more to protect YOUR firearm privileges (because it's NOT a right in this country) than any other activity you can think of.
You say "they function, that's about all..." when it comes to guns, what else matters? A gun is a machine that sends high velocity projectiles in a predictable fashion a certain distance. The Norks do that - and apparently, they do it well enough that operators can win high level international competitions with them.