In general, foreigners were treated better than the Chinese extras for sure, but for the first two movies we were treated quite badly, like cattle herded to the set. It was entirely due to what you said though, lack of care to cut costs. We weren't there to be movie stars. On Wandering Earth 2 though we were treated like royalty as I was hired to be a featured extra. There were some times when it felt like discrimination but in reality it was more to do with not being able to communicate with people because I don't speak any Chinese.