Forget it. The huge risk ain't worth the small reward.
I disagree. BTCChina has been fantastically resilient against DDOS, has APIs included in Qt open trader, and the security of 2FA plus a little obscurity and finally their move to a "maker taker" fee system, makes it my exchange of choice. Their mobile site works too, as an actual mobile site. And, holy shit, they have an English version of the site.
You'll need a passport technically. They don't verify it ATM. It's for AML.
For me in the US, having funds sit as CNY for their fiat form has an added bonus, albeit small, since CNY is appreciating against the USD and has been for a few years, at around 3% APY. Put a different way, even if you think Bitcoin is a scam, you could effectively use this route as a 3% APY savings account.
Great, you need a passport but they don't verify it. Sound really "secure" for the future......
And the fact the Chinese government is clamping down on all Chinese exchanges.
Keep going, dude, just make sure you can get your money out one day.
The rest of them don't do that. The only things they verify to not be falsified are Chinese documents. If you are Chinese, they care. In the future, perhaps China will cooperate above-table with US FinCEN and so forth. But for now, they aren't required to do any of that. Taking down a declared ID number and category makes Lee, their CEO, the more conservative of them. They're certainly the most "real" of the exchanges. (OKCoin is backed by legitimacy too, and I arbitrage LTC there, but it's not nearly as solid as BTCChina.) He's paid the price in decreased volume after their run as the leader.
He's also the brother of the author of Litecoin, who works for Coinbase. Somehow, I'm not too worried that the money will just fly away. Too many real people with well-known IRL identities.
FYI if you actually care, you'd report this money on your taxes as money in a foreign account. Technically you're already supposed to, and as of June this year, most foreign banks (Swiss, etc.) are cooperating and will report your activity to the US. Whether China has any intention of doing this in the future, idk. Doubtful at present. See "FACTA".
Perhaps I am granted a higher confidence by actually having a passport, and regularly traveling to parts of Asia as well as other locations, and being able to (slowly) understand Mandarin. Everyone around here seems to have this notion that the Chinese are out to swindle us out of every last penny. Which is ironic, because many of them feel the same distrust for us.
