/biz/ - Business & Finance

How do Chinese people have more money than what they earn?

I ask this because I married a Chinese woman, she studied overseas, and her family seems quite well off. Multiple properties in tier 1 city in China under her mom and herself, I walked outside of their flat, and it is advertise around easily $2 million USD for a flat.

My mother in law is quite demanding, and thinks us overseas guys or my parents have liquid money in hand easily.

My wife doesn't know how her mom earned her cash, and told me that her mom never took a loan before at all. This just doesn't make any sense to me at all.

I am overseas Chinese and born overseas. As I am about to take a mortgage for a house overseas, my mother in law doesn't like the amount of debt I have to carry, and as you can sense, she's quite proud of her achievements and all, and kind of want my parents to help out more with down payment and all, so it would be much less burden for myself. I think my parents would help but have a lot of capital tied in properties.

I have relatives that are Chinese and they do have pretty sweet gigs there, and each time I return, they ask me to bring $10k cash to give to relatives or people.

I am just curious, how do people have so much money when their salaries don't match up? e.g. Xi Jinping article in the attachment.

I know a few quite wealthy asian guys who studied overseas, more often than not, they do not know what their parents do. I mean, I know what my parents do and how they made their wealth, but these wealthy kids I ask, they are clueless.