I don’t get it. What’s the benefit for the US?

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself.

That’s certainly one way to phrase it, comrade.

Well, this is confusing then.

US cost of life has got nothing to do with Chinese cost of life though.
You need to understand that most basic stuff is cheap, in China. I can feed myself heartily for like a dollar a meal. And that’s if I don’t want to cook!
I appreciate you talk about GDP, but those $13k are more like $130k when you live there. I was earning $20k and that was a comfortable life with no worries, on par with what I have now in Europe around 40k€.