if btc china had litecoins i'm sure that the gap would be smaller
Nope, litecoin doesn't have magical ability to transmute CNY to USD at rate closer than bitcoin to that used to calculate this gap.
The Chinese can get an $8 RC car for my kid to my doorstep and make profit, and we can't export a bitcoin?
Apparently someone buying bitcoin on our side of the wall, selling them beyond the wall and paying for stuff he wants imported not only saves on fees but also gets like 12% discount for exchange rate. I guess that's the price of risk of getting caught in volatility (like some definitely doing this were caught in april).