Chinese Economist Chen Ping: 'High-Income Society' Is A Western Trap To Get China To Also Stop Working; A Chinese Worker Is Better Off With Less Than $1,000 Monthly Salary Than An American Making $3,000 A Month (Archival)

Chinese economist Chen Ping said that the idea of a "high-income society" was a trap set by the West, in an attempt to get the Chinese to stop working, like Americans have. He made his remarks during a lecture held at Tsinghua University on May 30, 2019 and posted on Haokan Video (China) on July 31, 2020. Chen Ping said that Chinese workers who earn a monthly salary of less than $1,000 live a more comfortable life than Americans who earn $3,000 a month. He added that the U.S. does not have public transport, and that American university employees are required to own cars to get to work. Ping received his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987. His remarks have drawn much public scrutiny in China after it recently became evident that he in fact lives in the U.S. and owns property in Austin, Texas, following a Chinese social media post he had written complaining about the recent power outage in Texas.

Chen Ping: "Setting China's development goal as 'entering a high-income society' is a trap of the West. They hope that China will be just like them and then stop working. So the 'high income advantage' does not exist. According to my calculations, if I have a salary of 2,000 Yuan RMB a month in China, which equals less than $1,000 in the United States, I will live much more comfortably than if I had $3,000 in the United States. So the U.S. is in deep water and burning fire right now, do you understand? Very simple.

"There is no public transportation in the United States. I believe that a lot of young teachers come to work at Tsinghua and Peking University, they cannot afford to buy a house and have to live far away, which is absolutely not within the Third Ring Road, right? If they live outside the 5^th Ring Road, they commute by subways. But what do you do when there is no subway in the U.S.? You have to drive a car. How much does it cost to drive a car? With insurance and all that stuff. That's why the United States is actually in deep water and burning fire right now."