The Tesla and SpaceX boss delivered the dramatic message during an interview with Automotive News’ “Daily Drive” podcast. China is one of the few countries in the world that is expected to see economic growth this year despite COVID-19.
Jason Stein, who conducted the interview, asked Mr Musk “how about China as an electric vehicle strategy leader in the world?”
The tech mogul replied: “China rocks in my opinion. The energy in China is great.
“People there – there’s like a lot of smart, hardworking people.
“And they’re not entitled, they’re not complacent.
“I see in the United States increasingly much more complacency and entitlement especially in places like the Bay Area, and LA and New York.”
Since introducing pro-market reforms in 1979 China has been doubling the size of its economy roughly every eight years.
The country said grew its economy by 6.2 percent last year versus 2.1 percent for the United States.
Mr Musk compared the US to a sports team that has become complacent after years of winning.
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In 2019 the Chinese government helped Tesla secure $1.6billion (£1.22billion) worth of loans.
This money was invested in a new factory the company has built near Shanghai.
Earlier this year work at the factory had to be temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Mr Musk said he’d received less support from the Beijing government during the coronavirus crisis than domestic Chinese firms but understands why this is.
He commented: “They have been supportive.
“But it would be weird if they were more supportive to a non-Chinese company. They’re not.”
China is a one party state ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) though in practice its economy is largely based around the free market.
Earlier this week Mr Musk posted a meme on Twitter mocking Karl Marx, the founding father of communism.
The meme showed a picture of Mr Marx, who it described as “Hungry Santa”, with the slogan: “Gib me dat for free.”
Mr Musk accompanied this with the caption: “Das Kapital in a nutshell.”
Das Kapital is the most famous book written by Karl Marx during his life.