What is the systems response to Searle’s Chinese Room argument?

The system response to Searle’s Chinese room maintains a functionalist position (mainly outlined by Jack Copeland) and argues that Searle fails to comprehend the actual and total function of the semantic machine, and focuses on the individual in the room rather than its entirety, which constitutes the machine. Copeland argues that it is not the individual in the room that must understand Chinese as a precondition for strong artificial intelligence in the form of a machine, but rather the entire room than with all its entities and functions understands Chinese, and not the actual individual. The room as whole ought to be seen as complete system, and individual, the manual, the walls of the room, etc., are functional components that collectively constitute a semantic machine that understands Chinese

Some good references to the system response argument are John Heil’s Philosophy of Mind and the (online) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on the Chinese Room Argument.