People in China can't. They have to go through customs, which forbids taking large sums of cash. And you can't electronically move money in or out of China so e

People in China can't. They have to go through customs, which forbids taking large sums of cash. And you can't electronically move money in or out of China so easily. The banks have restrictions. There's ways around it. Suitcases full of cash (or gold) which you hope the customs officials won't notice, multiple trips to Hong Kong, junket trips (paying for credit at a casino in Macao, then "withdrawing" through a roulette table). There's probably other ways. Maybe cash in a shipping container? On the flip side, people outside China want to move money in, and can't. So they get Chinese companies to fake export receipts, pay for the export (officially), then collect the cash from the Chinese company on the other side.