But it is, there is already a problem with China stealing many western innovations and making cheap copies of that, that is the main reason why the USA is in conflict with China in the first place.
So a Chinese person will never know what a "real Rolex" is simple because copycats diminish the image of Rolex in China.
So if he were to get in contact with a real shop that sells real Rolex, he would not buy that because he would think that the brand is crappy, and not recognize that what he bought earlier was a copycat.
Customers think like that. So you might suffer a loss of like 50$ by buying a crappy copycat, but Rolex the firm might suffer billions of $ of losses because of this.
So trademark respect in this case is crucial.