that was eliminated for items from China and Hong Kong is based on the country the item was purchased from or the country it was produced in.

This section of the tariff code seems to imply that the exemption applies to the country you purchased it from: Link to Federal Register section

However, Customs has a "country of origin" field on their forms and their webpage explaining internet purchases says: "Country of origin of the product itself. Be aware that this is not necessarily the country where the item was purchased".

With the speed that these new executive orders are coming out I don't know if all the pertinent documentation is keeping up to date with the actual intent of the new rules or how the customs screeners are interpreting those rules.

The current situation seems like utter chaos to me.