It's a side effect of the currency controls Xi put in place in 2017-18.
Around that time, the Xi admin began limiting the amount of currency outflow from a single household to around $50-100k a year. That isn't enough for international tuition in most cases in the US, or moving abroad.
As such, anyone who wanted to move or pay tuition in the US began leveraging shadow banks.
It doesn't apply if you do direct bank to bank transfer to university, no? IIRC $50K limit per person is put on RMB <-> USD conversion, and that's is usually enough for yearly living expenses. I might be wrong, but that's how it was explained to me by my Chinese colleagues back in the day.
From what I heard from friends, a lot of programs didn't support bank-to-bank transfers with Chinese banks, and a lot of family money was grey (not necessarily due to corruption, but due to the nature of business in China, which changed rapidly in just 30 years).
There were much less invasive ways to nudge businesses to convert black/grey money into white money but the method the Xi admin began enforcing in the 17-18 period also helped with solidifying control.
Kinda sad tbh because a lot of these reforms are needed, but they became politicized.
Around that time, the Xi admin began limiting the amount of currency outflow from a single household to around $50-100k a year. That isn't enough for international tuition in most cases in the US, or moving abroad.
As such, anyone who wanted to move or pay tuition in the US began leveraging shadow banks.