Except people in China don't have to save money by putting it into a bank account. They find other ways to invest that beat inflation like people all over the world have to do. And currently in China, that's real estate.
Also, there is no practical limit to how much dollar you can get with yuan, it's called the grey market.
It's pretty astounding to me how Americans can still have such simplistic and misplaced views of how things works in other countries.
Entirely curious: has he posted that he is American before? Where are you getting that from, are are you generalizing about all Americans and not talking about the poster above?
Yes, I'm American. I'm also generalizing and simplifying because an in-depth analysis of the China scam is the proper subject of a Ph.D. thesis and not a HN comment. As lionspaw has noted, there are complicating factors like the property boom (/bubble) and the grey market for inflation-resistant currencies. These hamper the current capital controls but do not render them entirely useless.
Also, there is no practical limit to how much dollar you can get with yuan, it's called the grey market.
It's pretty astounding to me how Americans can still have such simplistic and misplaced views of how things works in other countries.