“The People’s Bank of China in Shanghai is facing great pressure to keep a balance” between inflows to and outflows from China, said the directive, referring to the Shanghai office of the central bank. The directive said that 5.1 trillion renminbi, or $740 billion, sluiced out of China in the first 10 months of this year while only 3.1 trillion came back into the country.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange declined Tuesday evening to respond to a faxed question regarding offshore renminbi, suggesting that the question should be submitted instead to the People’s Bank of China. The central bank did not respond to questions late Tuesday evening.

Government directives are not supposed to be public in China. In a sign of government irritation at the unauthorized distribution, censors reached into private WeChat social media accounts on Tuesday and deleted copies of the directive.

The rules appear to take aim at a relatively discrete set of overseas deals that largely allow companies to pull money out of the country, rather than more strategic acquisitions.

Many Chinese companies, for example, have used their overseas subsidiaries to buy or borrow renminbi in Hong Kong, London, New York and elsewhere from the international arms of Chinese banks. Some of them then sell the renminbi and buy dollars, in a bet that the dollar will strengthen.

The new rules will apply broadly to Chinese companies. In the past, only companies with headquarters in Beijing typically had to notify the government of big moves in offshore renminbi.

Even so, the new rules amount more to a modest tweak than an outright overhaul.

Capital controls in China already restrict the movement of money. Individuals, for example, are not supposed to move more than $50,000 out of the country annually. Companies, too, have limits and other approval processes. The latest directive basically adds another layer of approval and closes some additional escape valves.