Yeah, those hokey mechanisms can, and often do screen a welter of financial chicanery. Furthermore, drug fraud is a big problem in China internally. A U.S. company I looked at recently was being hired by the government to provide mobile testing of the 'drugs' offered for sale in Chinese pharmacies.
"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design." -F.A. von Hayek