Can citizens of the People's Republic of China directly invest in US stocks? Guy at interactive brokers says he's 100% sure that they can. However, I've heard conflicting information about this.
The problem isn't if the person is a citizen of the PRC. The US certainly doesn't care. And the PRC doesn't care whether you have overseas assets. The difficulty would be getting RMB assets out of mainland China. Converting RMB assets into any other currency, technically, requires approval. For small amounts, you can tell the bank just about any reason, and no one will take a second look. If you're wiring millions of RMB out of China into a foreign account, you may be required to show documentation verifying the reason why. And if it's for foreign investment, SAFE approval may be required: http://www.safe.gov.cn/model_safe_en/index.jsp (And later repatriating foreign assets back into China might also be difficult for similar reasons.)
There's a link in my post to their website. It's the Chinese government body which handles foreign exchange... deciding how foreign currency enter and leave China. http://www.safe.gov.cn/model_safe_en/whjjs_en/whjjs_detail_en.jsp?id=1&ID=30202000000000000
Some additional research and I'm hearing that for mainland Chinese investors to invest in US stocks, they must transfer funds to an US company and there is a 50k USD annual restriction on that. However, I'm also hearing some conflicting information on this as well. It is quite difficult not being able to read Chinese and to research things myself. Anyone know more about this? Help would be greatly appreciated
And the US does trade with a country like China that does not even allow its currency to float on the open market like everyone else, nor let its citizens convert freely like everyone else. We did not do business with the Soviet Union back when they were red, yet we do with china.
This is not a thread about politics. If you want to talk about that topic I'd appreciate if you created a thread in the politics section.