it looks pretty complicated for a person who wants to send money (illegally) out of China and clean it up.

The easiest thing for China would be monitor crypto transactions and stop them from happening.

But suppose you are Chinese and have a good friend in UK who's going to report as legit income the result of your criminal activity in China (criminal as in simply hiding the money from the government, for whatever reason) on your behalf.

Why should you set this complex scheme up when you could simply fly to UK to visit your artist friend, buy one of his artwork with your yuan and you're done?

Or better yet, invite your UK friend to China and give him the money, that he can then deposit on his account.

Purchasing mining hardware or artworks with your money that can be trace back to you it's the exact same thing.