[luddy]

It is a money laundering case. HSBC tipped off the US gov't to a transfer that was effectively made using a false identity, to a recipient that was on a sanctions list. The US has banking laws, just like China has. If Tim Cook goes to Bank of China on Nanjing Lu and lies to SAFE so that he can wire a lot of RMB out of China, then the Chinese authorities will apprehend him. It's not as mysterious as it is being made out to be. Maybe she will walk because she's a celebrity executive in China, and because her case has been spun to be all about competition between the US and China, but still: banking laws are banking laws, in the US, China, Hong Kong, Europe, you name it. If you don't want to be in danger of breaking them, don't use the banks in that country.