Chinese investors’ access to foreign assets expands—a bit

THE 55-KILOMETRE Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is a quick drive but a technical challenge. The trip requires motorists to buy insurance in three jurisdictions. Those making the jaunt from Hong Kong to Macau must still buy a Chinese policy, because the waters below the bridge belong to the mainland. Traffic is low.Such are the barriers to movement in and out of China. For most people, attempting to shift money between China and the territories can be even more frustrating. For many years insurance products sold in Hong Kong created a bustling business whereby rich customers from the mainland bought policies worth hundreds of thousands of dollars using Chinese credit cards, only to later cash them out in Hong Kong dollars. In Macau, plastic watches once sold for $10,000. Upon swiping their Chinese cards, buyers received the tawdry timepiece along with a stack of dollars.