The US, as far as I know, is by far the highest paying country to software engineers in the world, starting by 2-3x to rich countries. I seriously doubt ANY software engineer can make more money in China than in the US for any similar position of responsibility.
Another fact I learned from my travels is that US is actually cheapest country if you keep the quality of goods and services constant. In most foreign countries - including tax free countries like UAE - things like iPhone, computers, cars are actually more expensive than in US. Almost all imported goods from China, Japan etc are typically cheaper in US than in other countries. Some services, food and labor could be cheaper but overall if you insist at staying at Hilton quality hotels or eating at nice restaurants, buying an equivalently nice urban home, or getting top quality spa treatment, cost usually comes out to same as in US.
Obviously these are anecdots so don't take it as statistical trend. Having said that there has been no better time to be expat if (1) if you have US education/experience (2) you can get work permits (3) you have freedom to travel around.
I still would not believe China pays software engineers more than the US, even at a leadership position, without some stats. China as much as India has vast lower "engineering" cast based on price.
I have not yet heard of people from Argentina returning to glory after working outside, it is expected to take a dent in income, even though argentina is much richer than China/India for these purposes.
http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst//highest...
And Switzerland and Israel are very small countries, where the engineering sample is probably very low and so are th work opportunities.