Why a meaningless and unbelievable subplot?

Rating: 7/10 (18 October 2006)

I must have read a dozen reviews of "The Departed" by professional critics. No one, however, has pointed out the utter meaninglessness of the 20-minute subplot--quickly discarded--involving the selling of mysterious microprocessors to agents of the government of China. It's beyond belief to ask an audience to believe that a local mobster into loan sharking, drug dealing, and the usual local mobster fare would delve into far murkier international intrigue. I guess Scorcese must have had second thoughts, too, since this whole sequence was dropped like a hot potato, not to be mentioned again. Further, and oddly, too, the agents of the Chinese government are seen speaking Cantonese, not Mandarin.
Was the subplot a big mistake or was it an expensive tip-of-the-the-cap to the movie's Cantonese origins? In any case, it merely further bloated an already too-long film.