We've recently experienced a delay in Wires sent to China. Current example:

Our customer sent funds to China with the Originator to Beneficiary Info: "Purchase of Dress"

A few days later, our customer came back to notifying us that the Beneficiary's Institution is holding the funds due to the purpose of payment. The purpose of payment cannot contain any words related to "order, trade, buy, etc.," and advised for our customer to inform us to stay tuned for messages (from the Beneficiary Institution) and remove the "order" from the purpose of payment as soon as possible.

We sent a service message providing this information to the Beneficiary Institution, in response, "Please be informed the amended purpose of remittance still does not match with the foreign exchange administration regulation" and is requesting that we sent them a $20.00 amendment fee to them, or the wire will be returned within 5 days.

Is this something anyone else has experienced? We are unaware of this requirement, why these terms cannot be used, and why they can request an amendment fee for an error we are not aware of? Advise would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Maybe someone else can give more info. on whether this is happening to them, but this is not really the bank's problem. You executed the order as received, it is up to the sender to either take the money back or pony up the additional $20. A foreign bank operating in China can do pretty much anything they want to. We will probably see a lot of shenanigans with the current trade war going on.