中国资本外流愈演愈烈，人民币再遇考验

choi

Keith Bradsher, 中国资本外流愈演愈烈，人民币再遇考验. 纽约时报中文网, Feb 14, 2016
cn.nytimes.com/business/20160214/c14db-chinaexodus/

, which is translated from

Keith Bradsher, China’s Wealthy Move Money Out as Country’s Economy Weakens. New York Times, Feb 14, 2016.

Quote:

(a) "China is also trying to put the brakes on outflows, by tightening its grip on the country’s links to the global financial system. The government, for example, just started to clamp down on people’s use of bank cards to buy life insurance policies pmore fully explained in the last paragraph in quotation (b)].

(b) "The government, though, is trying to cut off some routes [of money outflow].

"Two years ago, the government gave permission for insurers to invest 15 percent of their assets overseas, up from 1.5 percent. But China abruptly told insurers this winter to suspend many of their overseas plans, according to Hong Kong financiers.

"Beijing has restricted the withdrawal of renminbi from overseas branches of Chinese banks. In Shenzhen, banks have begun requiring that residents make reservations up to a week in advance if they want to change the daily maximum of $10,000 worth of Chinese currency into dollars.

"In January, Zou Tai, a hospital worker from east-central China, caught an early morning flight to buy a $50,000 life insurance policy in Hong Kong. Scores of Chinese customers having been doing the same to get money out of the country, since the policy is bought in renminbi and can be cashed out in American dollars.

" 'The buying power of the renminbi keeps dropping,' Mrs Zou said. 'I feel that China’s leaders will have no choice but to devalue the renminbi.'

"Mrs Zou acted in the nick of time, since the government is now pushing back. UnionPay International, a government-controlled bank card company, recently announced that it would start strictly enforcing a pre-existing but widely ignored limit on overseas insurance purchases of $5,000 a year per card.

Nite:
(a) "Beijing has restricted the withdrawal of renminbi from overseas branches of Chinese banks. In Shenzhen, banks have begun requiring that residents make reservations up to a week in advance if they want to change the daily maximum of $10,000 worth of Chinese currency into dollars."
(i) Outside mainland China, withdrawal of renminbi causes too much if it in the market, devaluing the currency. 物以稀为贵.
(ii) Inside China, withdrawal will not create the same problem, as long as that person does not use it to buy dollar. If that person uses the same amount to buy yen, renminbi will devalue (a bit) relative to yen.

() nick (n):
"1a :  a small notch, groove, or chip
* * *
2: a final critical moment <in the nick of time>"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nick

(c) "To get around the country's cash controls, individuals are asking friends or family members to carry or transfer out $50,000 apiece, the annual legal limit in China. A group of 100 people can move $5 million overseas.  The practice is called smurfing, named after the blue, mushroom-dwelling cartoon protagonists, and it is part of an exodus of capital that is casting doubt on China’s economic prospects and shaking global markets."
(i) smurf (disambiguation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smurf_(disambiguation)
(A Smurf is a fictional tiny blue humanoid from The Smurfs created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo in 1957. * * * may refer to "Smurfing (financial crime) or "structuring", a term related to money laundering")

For the latter, see structuring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring
("The term 'smurfing' is derived from the image of the comic book characters, the Smurfs, having a large group of many small entities. Miami-based lawyer Gregory Baldwin is said to have coined the term in the 1980s"/ section 2 Other uses)
(ii) smurf (vi): "Slang To buy as much pseudoephedrine as is legally permitted in each of numerous stores over a wide area in order to obtain enough to produce methamphetamine"
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed, 2011.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suggestions/smurf

Many online English dictionaries, including www.m-w.com, does not contain a definition of smurf,as a noun or a verb.

(d) "Shaun Rein 雷小山, the founder of the China Market Research Group" (CMR; based in Shanghai)
(e) "Ronald Wan, a Hong Kong money manager who is on the boards of numerous state-owned enterprises in mainland China, said that pessimism was becoming the consensus. 'Among the companies I have been in contact with,” he said, “all of them have the intention of moving money out of the country.' "

Ronald Wan 温天纳 is 软银总裁 or 软库(软银)金汇执行董事暨投资银行负责人, depending on Chinese-language websites. Having nothing to do with the Softbank of Japan, 软银 or 软库(软银)金汇 is an entity out of the 2001 acquisition by Softbank Investment International (Strategic) Ltd 软库发展有限公司, of e2-Capital Securities subsidiary of e2-Capital (Holdings) Ltd 金汇投资(集团)有限公司.