Thanks for the info, Fellas.
Darn, it sounds like it actually IS complicated, and my law firm was NOT lying about that.
I thought there was some kind of provision for transferring money into the US on a one-time basis, as part of immigration... But it seems the Chinese government was to take as big a slice as possible.
That second-to-last paragraph is a shocker to me! She would have to give up her Chinese citizenship to get US citizenship? I don't think she knows that. Even the possibility of citizenship is still some years off, but I don't think she planned to give up her Chinese citizenship.
Those limits Willy talked about are pretty low. That would pretty much forbid her from bringing her money here. 50k RMB is not much, I think about $8,200 at the moment. It would take a lot of such transfers to send 900k RMB. Maybe we will save this problem for another day. Deal with immigration first. Money is secondary, and she can always just leave it in China and let it grow.
If the US economy keeps getting worse, China may be more and more attractive, in the long run. (though I've also heard that China doesn't want westerners as citizens...)