“claimed China is being controlled by a small clique of crooked high-level officials. “
Gosh, that must be really rough, living in a nation controlled by a small clique of crooked high-level officials. /s
“The US is being controlled by a small clique of crooked high-level officials. American security officials earlier this year authorized an escalation of espionage efforts in the United States against the president.”
Change a few words and it describes America perfectly.
This has been recurrent in history. A relatively small circle of morons with no ethical restraints manipulates their way to power. The reality is that most people are so busy trying to make sense of their own lives such that they don't have time to truly watch what is going on around them. Scam artists, (i.e. MOST politicians) take advantage of this. Sometimes the only way to stop people like this is to take EVERYTHING from them, forcefully. Inevitably, people who live by such such selfish motivations as these “high-level officials” die unhappy and unfulfilled. The problem is that they make lots of people miserable in the interim.