China’s state-run Global Times on Sunday argued the death of Jeffrey Epstein is evidence the entire American system is fundamentally corrupt, rich criminals are treated far too well, and change is impossible because Americans only get to choose between two parties when they vote.

The latter criticism seems odd coming from a deeply paranoid single-party Communist dictatorship that constantly throws public officials of every rank in jail for corruption, but here it is, courtesy of the Global Times:

The US has developed dramatically thanks to such a system controlled by capital groups. But things are seemingly getting out of control. The widening gap between the rich and the poor is dividing the country and sharpening social contradictions. 

But even if people realized this fact, what can they do? They can only oppose one administration and turn to another party backed by another capital group. The country has no alternative but to solve the problems with the existing system caused by the system itself – a vicious circle.

Just as Ryan Saavedra, a reporter at The Daily Wire, tweeted on Sunday, “Many of the people who are convinced there was a full blown government conspiracy in Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide are the same people who think the government can be trusted to own all the guns.”

Communist China never has a shortage of corruption despite waging an endless crackdown upon it, in part because it has a thoroughly opaque “justice” system with a strong preference for prosecuting corrupt officials who happen to be politically inconvenient to Communist Party strongman Xi Jinping and his inner circle. 

The Global Times argued Epstein’s strange demise, the subject of conspiracy theories from every point on the political compass, was a consequence of the United States pampering its most wealthy and powerful prisoners. This left Epstein with enough privacy to either kill himself or get murdered, depending on which hashtag one prefers. The report continued:

Epstein was a well-connected financier who managed the assets of clients from the US upper class, moving among elites including incumbent US President Donald Trump and former US president Bill Clinton. But having been embroiled in sex scandals for years, he was arrested on July 6 for alleged sex trafficking of underage girls and faced a 45-year maximum sentence if convicted. 

There was no shortage of suspicions about Epstein’s case due to his inextricable link with political figures. But his suicide has triggered further online discussion inside the US. Several hashtags relevant to the case, including #EpsteinSuicide, #ClintonCrimeFamily, #TrumpBodyCount and even #EpsteinMurder have been trending on Twitter and have driven people to reflect on the political system of the United States of America.

US civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson once said in a Ted Talk,”We have a system of justice in this country that treats you much better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent … Wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes.”

Here at least there is little trace of hypocrisy, because China is rarely accused of pampering its prisoners, and their assets are usually seized by the government shortly after they disappear into the back of an unmarked car. The major advantage enjoyed by formerly rich and well-connected prisoners in the Chinese system is that they get to keep their internal organs.