Border officials at airports in the U.S. and Canada are seizing large amounts of cash from incoming Chinese nationals, according to The Wall Street Journal:
Officials at Canada’s two busiest airports—Toronto and Vancouver—seized around 12.9 million Canadian dollars ($13 million) in undeclared cash from Chinese nationals from April 2011 through early June 2012, according to documents provided to The Wall Street Journal by the Canada Border Services Agency.
The money, most of it returned to the owners, represented 59% of all cash seized at the airports in the period, according to the data. In the U.S., Chinese citizens are the top source of airport cash seizures after Americans.
In June, a Chinese man touched down at Vancouver airport with around $177,500 in cash—mostly in U.S. and Canadian hundred-dollar bills, stuffed in his wallet, pockets and hidden under the lining of his suit case. Clarence Lo, the Canadian Border Service officer who found the cash, said the man told him he was bringing the money in to buy a house or a car. He left the airport with his cash, minus a fine for concealing and not declaring the money.
“He wasn’t very happy,” said Mr. Lo.
See also previous CDT coverage of capital flight and its threat to Chinese economic growth.
