They used to try to overbuy milk powder in NZ, ignoring supermarket limits imposed bc NZ mothers couldn't find enough formula for their kids. Chinese buyers would sell it back to China to make a tidy profit, after their baby formula scandal drove demand for foreign baby formula (which still exists today). Worked at a supermarket at start of uni, got so fucking sick of being screamed at in mandarin bc I refuse to sell them 30 tins when the limit was 2. Over and over, every damn shift.
Source that isn't me: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/china-buys-up-big-in-nz-baby-m...
Are those profits returning to China? If they wanted profit they would invest in Chine RE which (until recently) was much more profitable and speculative than western RE. Western RE investment was for capital flight to bring wealth abroad. Very few want to bring money INTO PRC.
Baby formula actually great example, at least from what I know in AU market. Yeah you had the occasional tourists bringing back a few cans to savec money, but the sellers getting 30 tins and doing weekly shippments to regular customers in PRC were getting paid in AUD. $60 per tin into AU economy flipping milk powder. It's a good gig, it's no real estate money though. You can argue it's net bad for society because some gain at society loss, but that's how it be in capitalism. Some interests profit at the cost of others. And the interests who profit from PRC money, arguably the establishment, wants to keep profitting.