My thoughts were just dominating their economy, bankrupting them, then putting Chinese politicians in power to take over a failed state. It'd look more legitima

My thoughts were just dominating their economy, bankrupting them, then putting Chinese politicians in power to take over a failed state. It'd look more legitimate than Russia annexing Crimea and since it's economic and complicated, the average person wouldn't care meaning minimal media coverage. If a regular person has to read more than a paragraph to full comprehend what happened, it's just not worth worrying about.