Exactly!

Only one?

Actually, I suppose that pretty much goes to the root of the continent's myriad problems, perhaps in tandem with an unusually overdeveloped will to statism.

Whereas in China you don't pay tax?

China Individual Income Tax

From this it appears that you start paying tax at 20% on RMB5,000 (approx £360), rising to 45% on RMB100,000 (aprox £7200)

Given that the Chinese Government is one of the most autocratic on Earth it seems like you pay a lot to be oppressed. I guess however that despite China's much vaunted economic growth, the vast majority of Chinese would dearly love to be earning enough to pay tax at 20%

Also according to this:

Currently, the official rate of corporate tax in China is 33%. However, in an attempt to attract higher levels of foreign investment as the authorities sought to develop a market-based economy, various deductions and waivers have allowed foreign-funded firms to pay tax at an effective rate of 14%, whilst domestic firms effectively pay corporate tax at about 24%.

Come, come! The lady is not speaking from personal experience. She has had affairs with expats or has been on the expat party/bar circuit and has heard taxes mentioned as a major form of irritation, so she parrots it as a way of relating and getting the expat to think she knows more than she does.

We have all negotiated this ploy - tried to appear more knowing than we really are about something, to gain a pretended community with the person we were talking to. For whatever reason. An American businessman might say to a customer in London, "That congestion charge must really bite your family, especially if you've got kids in the zone." Pretending to relate.

The lady was just trying to get a gig in Germany. I hope she made it.

Speaking to various taxpayers in China, it seems the application of the tax code is rather haphazard.

I also know an English guy earning 15,000 RMB a month who pays barely any tax.

I spent a semester teaching in Sweden and learned that they had 25% tax on equaivalent of the first $25,000 and 50% tax above that. I met a taxi driver in Stockholm who said he made more than a surgeon.
So I concluded that I would ride in a Swedish taxi anytime, but would hope to make it back to the USA if I needed surgery.

For once, I think Verity is completely right.

(maybe we should check the alignment of the stars ....)

Well, Michael Farris, I believe there was a total eclipse of the moon ...

We have all negotiated this ploy - tried to appear more knowing than we really are about something, to gain a pretended community with the person we were talking to. For whatever reason.

Explains a lot...