Elon Musk said China would produce "strong companies," praising the country's workers.
On the contrary, he said, "In America people are trying to avoid going to work at all."
Musk was famous for lying on the floor in the factory during the "production" of the Model 3 back in 2018.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he expected China to produce "very strong companies," thanks to the country's workforce.
"There are a lot of hard-working and talented people in China who strongly believe in production," Musk said in an interview on Tuesday.
"They will not only burn fat in the middle of the night, they will be burning fat in the morning," he said. "They will not even abandon the factory type, while in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all."
Musk himself was famous for lying on the floor in Tesla's Fremont factory during Model 3's "production hell".
"I wanted my situation to be worse than anyone else in the company," he told in 2018. "Whenever they were in pain, I wanted mine to be worse."
Last month, workers at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory had to sleep at the facility as production resumed following a three-week closure, reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The memorandum, reported, stated that each employee will be provided with a sleeping bag and air mattress and will be required to work 12-hour shifts and one day off a week.
But the waves at work could change in China after technical workers protested the "996" program, which operated 72 hours a week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days.
"This approach is very dangerous for the human body, we have heard many reports of deaths due to overwork in recent years, but this crippling overtime program still exists," wrote one blogger at the time. "We can't help but ask - is it really worth changing our lives for money?"
Musk's recent comments came as a response to a question about which car launch was most impressive, to which he replied that Volkswagen - albeit far from launch - "did a lot" in front of the EV.
Musk later praised software developers and experts in his team, saying his companies' focus on challenges such as performance intelligence and spaceflight helped him attract top talent.
He said the best minds are more interested in pushing the boundaries of innovation than being paid a lot of money to work on something boring.
"It's not a matter of money," he added. "It's very exciting how exciting the projects are."
