China’s wealthiest citizens are resorting to dubiously legal methods to get their money out of the country as economic turmoil and a failing property market loom over the nation, according to the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.
The richest in the country are using various methods to circumvent the $50,000 foreign exchange limit, such as buying cryptocurrency, paintings or overpaying for imports among other methods, according to the WSJ. From the last half of 2023 to June this year, over $250 billion in assets has left the country, according to a WSJ analysis of Census and Economic Information Center data.
“Five or 10 years ago if you were a Chinese person you could put your money in real estate and have a way of growing your wealth,” Martin Rasmussen, senior strategist at research firm Exante Data told the WSJ. “That is not by any means attractive anymore.”