My sister has a bank account--and a passbook as proof of that bank account, in China. She opened that bank account as a Chinese citizen with a Chinese ID, and it currently has approximately $35, 000 in it. She became a Canadian citizen, and her Chinese citizenship was revoked (permanently taken away from her involuntarily).
Her Chinese ID had expired, and when I asked the bank whether she could use the expired ID when withdrawing cash, the bank said no. When I said that the accountholder is now a citizen of a foreign country and has a foreign passport, their call center agents responded that they don't know if she would be allowed to withdraw the money. What could/should she do in order to be able to get the money? She is in Canada and it is obviously not a good idea to just go to China without assurances from the bank that the money can be taken out of the account without the assistance of lawyers.
Note: this account cannot be accessed by any electronic means including internet or telephone banking, and the cash can only be withdrawn or transferred if the accountholder goes to a branch of the bank in China (presumably with all the proper IDs).
(Having your citizenship taken away makes simple things infinitely harder to do)
