He could have asked them to deposit it into his US bank account, it really isn't that hard to do a wire transfer. It doesn't make sense to pay $30 in fees when

He could have asked them to deposit it into his US bank account, it really isn't that hard to do a wire transfer. It doesn't make sense to pay $30 in fees when you are only sending $500, but for $50k its a blip. For Chinese citizens it isn't easy, but for govt and institutions it is.