One thing that's hard to understand was.... why was "Made in Germany", or "Made in Spain" ever needed?
Offcially, there was no such a thing called "Chinese Contract". All Broomhandles bought by Chinese were commercial guns or post WWI military surplus, none of them was seperated numbered for Chinese. Why extra "Made in Germany" or "Made in Spain" in Hanzi though.....
One possibility was against flooding local copies. But that theory had a hole -- Unlike today's fake LV ladybag, or fake Vacheron wristwatch, it really did not take a genius to tell the quality difference of European broomhandles and most local copies. And, in most cases, people buying local copies were focusing on their low price, and people buying import products were focusing on their quality.... two different worlds never mix together and people would not change consuming behavior simply because you add a few Hanzi on the product. And, if applying previous waiter's theory, things really would become worse, now German or Spainard pushed some their customers away because their products now looked more like local products

This world is a little bit complex here. And, needless to say, Chinese craftsmen could copy Hanzi better than copy Latin characters.