I'm not completely familiar with the current state of affairs on how freely RMB can leave the country, but even when there were strict controls in the 80s and 9

I'm not completely familiar with the current state of affairs on how freely RMB can leave the country, but even when there were strict controls in the 80s and 90s (you had to have receipts of USD being changed into RMB to change any RMB back to USD, and couldn't exceed what you put in) it was relatively straightforward to get money out of the country. Consider - an acquaintance started a western car dealership which he ran successfully for years, then sold. Flush with lots more RMB than he had invested in USD, he simply created a quality building supply exporting company which sold Chinese building supplies (like marble) in USD to US customers, while purchasing them in country with his RMB. He also built his house with these building supplies. In a year or so, all of his RMB was used up, and that was that. This was a relatively "small business" owner compared to the kinds of tycoons we're talking about in Russia and China. Replicated this on a larger scale would be trivial, even if there were rules about it.