i can imagine that exporting goods is also a good way to "launder" money. Purchase manufactured goods and ship 'em overseas, and receive US dollars in return, in a non-chinese bank account.
That is such a great way to defeat currency controls that I wonder what the Chinese government--or any government with currency controls--could do about it. It seems like you could move infinite money out of a country that way with almost no risk. It's not smuggling. If it's done legally, you'd declare your sales and pay tax on your profits, but still end up with a pile of cash outside of your home country.
Off the top of my head, I suppose they could crack down on it by:
* cutting off all trade (obviously a stupid thing to do)
* making it illegal for their citizens to have foreign bank accounts
* require that all exports go through government-controlled agencies who would ensure that payments don't end up in foreign bank accounts
* requiring all payments received in a foreign country to be repatriated back to the home country
What does China (or any government with currency controls) do?
And you could make a deal with the overseas buyer to give you half the money on one account, and the other half under the table/off the books. Then repatriation becomes just another cost of doing business.
If someone's doing that for multiple years, they deserve a microscope.
Most small business in China happens without being taxed. It is fairly trivial to get money into China but harder to get it out of China. From memory, Chinese people can exchange about $10,000 USD per year which is more than the average income here. If you need more than just ask your friend and buy them dinner. (we didn't have enough paperwork to exchange our bonus from RMB to AUD when I left the country. I had two Chinese friends help me since they didn't need any paperwork to exchange money)
The limits are more at a company level than at an individual level.
That being said where would you keep the money as a Chinese national? In the USA where the US government might take it and then throw you in jail when you collect it (Huawei CFO)? Most other countries work with the USA so they are not a lot safer.
The Chinese tax system is mostly "prepaid" so the government gets there tax either way...
This is also exactly what a lot of companies do and you can buy overseas money from these people.
If you're not operating a front company to evade US trade sanctions, you should be fine.
Hmm... they've decided not to follow any of those leads even though they did the same thing? Interesting...