A young American’s state media salary sparked such fury and blowback online in China this week, it forced him to quit the job.
Since April, Edward Kuperman, who also goes by the Chinese name “Gu Aihua” has worked for the Dunhuang Media Convergence Center, a small state media outlet in Gansu province, China. Mostly, he puts out social media videos promoting the rural, impoverished city, most known for its UNESCO-listed Mogao caves.
However, the 24-year-old Yale graduate quickly attracted ire last week, after Chinese netizens stumbled across his supposed 900,000 RMB ($133,000) income online.
“How much Chinese culture can a 24-year-old foreigner have? Can't we find a better candidate among 1.4 billion Chinese?” posted one person on Weibo.
Netizens were only inflamed further when they found he had worked as a ‘Coalition for the Defence of Taiwan Intern’ at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington DC.
“Let the wolf into the house! High salary to support a spy!” read one typical post on Weibo.
“Don't foreign devils need political review?” asks another.
“He looks like an Israeli,” helpfully chimed another.
On July 24, former Global Times Editor, and infamous nationalist commentator, Hu Xijin felt compelled to weigh in.
‘Some netizens accuse Kuperman of being a spy… but they are just trying to sabotage his lucrative job‘, said Hu on Weibo, dismissing the rumours, but also repeating them.
He added: “In the media Lao Hu used to work, foreigners never received such a salary.” That's true. Global Times are notorious in Beijing circles for their low salaries — perhaps explaining the tabloid’s often irritable tone.
Hu’s post spawned hundreds of comments, before being quickly deleted. Perhaps it was because paragraphs like this, which give too much away:
“The main role of expats like Edward Kuperman should be to appear in the spotlight. The substance of their output will be controlled by the Chinese editorial department and they will not have the decision-making power to select topics, nor will they have the right to finalise content.. If he posts anti-China opinions on social media, he will be fired quickly.”
Dunhuang’s recruitment was partly led by the local Party, who supposedly fasttracked Kuperman in ahead of the post's consultation period. Officials are now facing rare public scrutiny.
Censors have since deleted social media posts about the story — some had thousands of shares. Netizens have been sharing their bans, given for “disrupting social order”.
Other coverups have taken place. One source netizens linked to was a story about Kuperman in China Daily (actually, the article was reprinted from Xinhua). China Daily have since taken the story down from its main and global sites with the articles showing: “Sorry, the page you requested was not found”, though it remains up on their more hidden PDF and paywalled portals.
The outrage comes amongst a depressed labour market, with rising youth unemployment — despite a fiddling of the figures; steep pay cuts across the state sector; regular strikes and labour disputes; and a mini-trend where Chinese graduates rent offices and pretend to work. Just this week, Caixin reported that unemployment pay-outs in China soared 34 percent last year.
‘Foreigner gets lavished, while locals suffer’. Great story. However, like most internet fury, the truth has been a little exaggerated…
Lucrative salary?
The Dunhuang Media Centre was established in December 2018, and is one of hundreds such Government-run facilities across the country, as part of a major recent push by the Central Propaganda Department.
In practice, media centres are part-local state media, part-tourist boards, who often utilise foreign faces for international exposure, to mixed success. Ever wonder why cities like Chongqing or Zibo keep going viral? Or why YouTubers keep flocking to the same places in China?
According to the original job listing in January, Dunhuang sought to recruit two hosts: one Chinese national under 30 “preferably female”; and one foreigner “under 35”.
It is worth saying this clause is highly illegal. According to Chinese law, employers are not allowed to specify age nor gender — though it’s rife and regularly goes unpunished. The state is some of the worst offenders (see my article last year about the PLA).
For the foreign hire, Dunhuang offered two salary bands, depending on qualifications. But even at the top tier — which bilingual, Yale graduate Kuperman is likely to have qualified for — the numbers don’t fall anywhere near what was reported online.
Salary. Tier One: RMB 300,000 per year (including social insurance and housing fund). Tier Two: RMB 200,000
Living Allowance. Tier One: RMB 300,000. Tier Two: RMB 200,000.
Housing Support Talent apartment provided or rental subsidy of RMB 12,000 per year (up to three years)
For a start, the advertised salary of 300,000 RMB includes social insurances. These are legally mandated taxes, yet swallow large parts of salaries.
The 300,000 RMB “living allowance” is essentially a bonus and has two major caveats. One, it is spread over eight years, equating to 37,500 RMB per year. And two, it is performance related. Believe me. These can — and often are — held back. *cries into lost income*
The final is most dubious of all. After three years, the applicant could receive up to 300,000 RMB towards purchasing a home. A 24 year-old American could tap this widely-available government scheme: but it is unlikely. Else, he would receive housing support of up to 12,000 RMB per year toward rent.
All in, the top renumeration package tots up to 349,500 RMB per year.
According to tax calculators, after deductions, this provides an actual take-home pay of about 22,500 RMB per month or 3200 USD.
A comfortable life for a young man in Gansu — but far from the jet-set lifestyle netizens are frothing over.
More, the salary is bang-in-line for a common “young foreigner” job in China, and actually quite a bit below what most foreigners in Beijing state media earn. [Full disclosure: I was on substantially much more.] It’s also far below what a bilingual Yale graduate might earn back home, or elsewhere in the world.
While the job is easy — point at the camera, and say “Wow. China good!” — the role also comes with some quite big drawbacks. No career advancement. Hits to reputation. And as Hu pointed out earlier: relentless censorship. In fact, Clause 1 of the job description reads:
“Support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system, and uphold the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China.”
Despite this, it is far, far beyond what comparable Chinese staff earn.
As a very rough guide, within China's top state media, Department Heads earn about 20,000 RMB per month. Middle Managers 14,000 RMB. Journalists 12,000 RMB. Fresh Graduates <10,000 RMB. And interns: zero.
Salaries at regional outlets are often half this. While median salaries across Gansu as a whole are closer to 4,000 RMB per month.
So one can understand the anger.
For me though, there’s also a greater question. What exactly are the Chinese government getting for their money?
Value for money?
In the Xinhua profile, one line stuck out:
While his posts have yet to attract large view counts, Kuperman is not in a rush to chase online traffic, as he believes that true international communication starts with concrete, real-life details.
That’s convenient. The dunhuang_plus Instagram account has 538,000 followers, who seemingly forgive the account’s patchy videos, featuring out-of-sync speech, or interviews drowned out by wind. Most videos simply feature young Chinese women in heavy makeup and traditional dress, posing slowly for the camera. Ming dynasty thirst traps.
There are viral hits on the channel, but their metrics are suspicious to say the least. Several videos are clustered within a few thousand of a million views — indicative that someone, somewhere has done a round-number bot spend to hit a KPI. Take this one:
The video about a small event in Toronto, called the “Embrace Dunhuang International Cultural Art Exhibition” is seemingly a viral hit on Instagram, with nearly 993,000 views and over 9,000 likes. However a quick glance at its 35 comments shows several duplicated lines, all written in AI-friendly syntax.
“This is more than a performance. It feels like a shared moment between cultures,” gushes three definitely human users.
In comparison, those featuring Kuperman have views which are more realistic. Like this recent one with 1,000 views and two likes.
Others feature teeth-gratingly awkward interplay between the two hosts, aimed at winning over global Gen Z crowds. Slay.
To quell the furore, the local Party said they have launched an investigation, to learn lessons. Well. Here's a starting point:
For years, Chinese bosses have leant on the maxim: “Want attention: stick a foreigner in it.” Just how much value are the Government actually getting from that approach? And is that preferential treatment prudent, given a slowing economy, and rising nationalistic sentiment?
An ending
Putting this together, I found an old university bio of Kuperman from 2024. The text reads: “Edward looks forward to synthesizing questions of identity, emotion, and ethics on and off the stage!”
Well, the young man certainly had those tested, this week. By Friday, he’d even ‘synthesized’ an answer.
On 31 July, state reports said Kuperman had resigned.
Edward and others from the Academy joined us for a group dinner when we were touring Dunhuang in late April. He had started only a week or two prior. He was enthusiastic and engaging. Though initially surprised to see an American working this far out in Western China, we envied him the chance to explore the exquisite Mogao Caves and vibrant Silk Road history as part of his employment. What an opportunity for a young person. It is one I would have welcomed decades ago. His rapid ouster shows that in the viral world we live in, emotion rules the day and facts are too often not considered in the moment and too late to be effective after the moment has exploded. There are wider lessons here, but alas not ones that likely will be learned anytime soon.
Glad nobody ever leaked my salary. Haha. But I was worked to the bone, and worked seven days a week for 7-8 years. And then 6 days a week for the rest. So, all told, even in my later years, my salary at state media was modest. But I was still fairly comfortable.
I feel old saying this, but “back in the day”, when I first started, I took home less than 3,000 yuan per month after deductions & tax. It’s kind of shocking to me to see that you can just walk into a high salary with no experience these days. But I guess the industry is a different beast now.