In politics and business, the dollar wins out. Look at Yao Ming, famous center for the Rockets. China taxes his incredible earnings at a huge rate and refuses to allow him to become a US citizen (assuming he wants to). A similar situation happened with former Maverick Wang Zhu Zhu. He came up missing when he came to the US to play ball. Speculation was he wanted to defect and Mark Cuban was gonna help him. The NBA wouldn't allow it and it all seemed to just go away. Whether he was defecting or not the NBA stance was clear, if you come from China you are the Chinese govt's property. The NBA needs those jersey to keep selling in China and for the Chinese gov't to continue sending qualified players.
Does our failure to enforce our laws make it any less of a crime?