Selling them cars and chips is fine, to a degree. That's different than transferring IP and giving them independent capability because you can stop selling to them if need be.
Not sure if you've ever been to China, but suffice to say that IP law is really not a major issue there. Reverse engineering ICs is very common, and basically the only thing really stopping that from happening for top end ICs is that RE time eats into profits.
Yes, fake chips have been a problem too, polluting the supply space. All the more reason to protect and verify IP. There's new tech for that. Maybe the next big thing. Hardware verified. Authenticity.
The problem for your argument isn't the parts that don't work, it's the ones that do-- and there are plenty of them.
You keep seeing the part while missing the whole. Kick your perspective up a level, and maybe you'll put it together.