[crystaln]

Yes. If you have a large amount of Chinese Yuan (CNY), it's very difficult to legally convert that to foreign currency or purchase substantial foreign assets. Foreign exchange is strictly regulated.

Until the Chinese government clamps down on BTC China, as I expect they will, bitcoins offer an excellent, possibly even legal, method for Chinese to take their money out of China. It's so useful in fact, that Chinese are willing to pay a 30%+ premium for bitcoin on the Chinese exchange.

Note that this same problem also stands in the way of those who might arbitrage the difference in the exchange prices.

(I've lived and transacted in China)

[_delirium]

Most of these purchasers are not really a net demand for Bitcoin, though, are they? I see them as mostly using Bitcoin as a short-term intermediary to gain USD or EUR while bypassing exchange controls. So they'll account for, say, 1,000 BTC bought, and 1,000 BTC sold.

[crystaln]

Many of them may not have USD bank accounts overseas, or wish to have the funds associated with their name.

I suspect a large amount of the funds are ill-gotten gains from rampant corruption by government officials and cronies.

Also, many will probably decide to hold on to at least some bitcoin even if they do have means to convert to foreign currency. Since there is a massive amount of money trying to get out of China - hundreds of billions - it's certainly possible there is significant net demand. If each purchaser keeps 20% of their assets in bitcoin, and $10M is fleeing each day, that's $2M in net demand - enough to influence price significantly at current volumes.

The differential between the Chinese exchange and US exchange may partially be explained by Chinese purchasing in China - raising the price - then selling overseas.