In this song, the singer warns the China Girl that he will destroy her culture by imparting Western values of materialism and superficial beauty ("I'll give you television, I'll give you eyes of blue, I'll give you a man who wants to rule the world"). Paul Trynka, the author of David Bowie's biography Starman, claims the song was inspired by Iggy Pop's infatuation with Kuelan Nguyen, a beautiful Vietnamese woman. She was staying at the studio and Bowie encouraged the couple's relationship. It has also be argued that the song is about heroin addiction, as "China White" is slang for the drug.
Iggy Pop wrote this with Bowie. It first appeared on Iggy's 1977 album The Idiot. The song did not see commercial success until later performed by Bowie. Iggy Pop was a very influential musician, but he didn't sell a lot of albums and was often low on cash. The proceeds from this gave him some financial stability for the first time.
In the 2018 documentary American Valhalla, Pop revealed that "China Girl" was indeed about a real woman - it was somebody's wife that Pop "got to know." In this scene, Josh Homme is reading a typed note from Pop that mentions a French singer as being the husband of this woman. This indicates that the song's subject is indeed Kuelan Nguyen, who was dating (although not married to) Jacques Higelin, a French singer.
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