Conduct Transactions: Chinese Citizens and Debit Cards

conduct transactions: Macau's Judicial Police said the syndicate was formed in 2016 and relied on point-of-sale machines -- the devices used by shops to conduct transactions with credit cards or debit cards -- which were smuggled in from China, according to CNN. These in theory would allow Chinese citizens to make withdrawals from their bank accounts that appeared to be domestic transactions, thereby avoiding China's strict limits on how much money people can move across its borders. The case is a high-profile example of Beijing's crackdown on attempts to dodge its capital controls, which it has tightened in recent years to prevent money from flooding out of the country and destabilizing the economy. Wealthy Chinese nationals living in the mainland have long sought to skirt the country's capital controls by moving money through Hong Kong and Macau. Read More China's state-run Xinhua News Agency said authorities found evidence that the group, run by a suspect surnamed Xu, was using the point-of-sale machines to allow gamblers to secretly cash out their casino winnings in Hong Kong dollars and Macanese patacas. The cities are technically part of the People's Republic of China but governed as special administrative regions, with their own currencies and far fewer restrictions than mainland China on moving money internationally. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.