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It is late in the evening, and Liang Li has finished her shift on the production line at Foxconn Chengdu. The 23-year-old strolls hand in hand with her boyfriend, also a Foxconn employee. The pair walk past hot-pot restaurants teeming with Foxconn workers and enter a fluorescent-lit store. Liang is excited. She is about to plunk down $430 for something she has coveted for months: an iPod Touch outfitted with a special box that allows it to work as a phone. (The phone adapter is not an official Apple device but a product of Chinese ingenuity.) The iPod Touch does not remind Li of long hours at the factory. Instead, the sleek Apple machine--designed in America, made in China--reflects what everyone in China and the U.S. dreams of: a better life.
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