Last week's revelation of ersatz Apple stores in one southwestern Chinese city has prompted officials to order two outlets to close -- but not because they are unauthorized rip offs.

The stores, in Kunming, were told to shut down because they did not have official business permits, Reuters says.

The stores sold/sell genuine Apple products bought from authorized resellers in China, an official at the city's business bureau said. One retail knockoff has sought Apple's approval to be a reseller and was not shut, a local government spokesman said.

Three of the five stores have the proper business permits, says Bloomberg, citing a newspaper report that appeared on a government website.

Reuters says Apple has no authorized stores in Kunming and just four in all of China. But the Silicon Valley icon does have 13 approved resellers there.

Chinese officials stressed that although the stores may not be the real thing, the iPads, iPods and MacBooks are.

"Media should not misunderstand the situation and jump to conclusions. Some overseas media has made it appear the stores sold fake Apple products," said Chang Puyun, spokesman of Kunming government's business bureau. "China has taken great steps to enforce intellectual property rights and the stores weren't selling fake products."

He added that officials are investigating whether Apple had applied with the Chinese government to have its store design and layout protected by law, which prohibits unscrupulous merchants from copying the "look and feel" of retail outlets.

Even staff members at the lookalike Apple stores didn't know they weren't genuine, and some angry customers demanded their money back, worried that they had bought counterfeit products.