Wei Chen had deliberately tried to conceal the money by taking it in wads of cash to her local branch in the Home Counties in batches of up to £4,000 at a time over the course of 33 days, a court heard.
The economic model of vast borrowing and building projects worked when China was poor and needed new roads, bridges and airports, but it is no longer sustainable as the nation finds itself drowning in debt and with nothing left to build.