I seem to recall that before HK was turned over to China, HK companies would do all but the most final of assemblies in China and then ship it across the border so they could be sold as "made in Hong Kong". And this is how Shenzen go so massive, as it is right up stream from HK.
And Singapore as well before they turned from a city state to a city offshore bank. They exploited their WTO membership.
Most of operations were ran like that: company imports loose goods from China at few pennies, and puts in "value" into them, most of the times just packaging with writing in English that was supposed to "cost" few dollars each, but of course the packaging was made in China for less than a penny each. This also allowed the Sg intermediary to claim expense on the stuff, reducing effective tax to single digits.
