Is the control on the yuan really that tight? How are Chinese citizens able to buy such a massive amount of premium Seattle/SF real estate with ease? Isn't ownership of foreign real estate a big leak?
Real estate purchases are one of the exceptions carved out where Chinese citizens are able to take more money out of the country. That's part of why it's so popular as an investment, because it's one of the few ways to move large amounts of money out of the country there's almost always another rich Chinese person or real estate speculator willing to pay the massively inflated prices which then gives the owner money outside of China.
I suspect (tinfoil hat on) that the whole spiel about "capital controls" and the bitcoin thing are a clever strategy to make people buy up lots of foreign real estate instead of virtual internet coins.