Li can profit here or there - he doesn’t need to cash in via the US to profit from his purchase of LQMT. It’s like buying a used car because you know it has a trunk full of jewels. You can always take the jewels and abandon the car and leave it to rust away.
I just hope he is somehow motivated to take profit in the US rather than HK or somewhere else. He very well may. I just can’t figure out a compelling reason.