@Linguist_: a standard poker-sized card is 3.5" high and 2.5" wide, while a standard bridge-sized card is the same height and only 2.25" wide.
There are numerous Chinese printers of imitation Bee decks. Some go to the trouble of at least trying to pretend they're something different by using different names (sometimes even in Mandarin), while others are bold enough to use USPC trademarks and copyrights and label their decks as Bee, stating they're made by USPC when it's clear they aren't.
I was helping Sales Director Bill Schildman track some of these counterfeits down in my neighborhood about a year ago. I identified shops that were carrying the cards for him. The intent wasn't to pursue the individual shop owners, since many of them wouldn't know USPC products from paving stones, but to get them stopped at the distributor level. USPC knows they have a snowball's chance in hell of pursuing legal action against the manufacturers. While helping his effort, I also found other cards that were being counterfeited, like numerous knock-off varieties of Uno card games.
I'm guessing that part of the reason they're creating a stronger presence in China is that they're trying to "invade" the turf of the counterfeiters themselves with a higher quality product. As limited capitalism continues to take hold and some people have more disposable income, they are becoming more quality-conscious and thus prefer the genuine article over cheap imitations. The Bicycle Star deck (both colors) was actually intended for sale in the Chinese market and is advertised on the Chinese website for USPC.
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