It was a rhetorical question, and at the time it did add something to the discussion by way of saying "hey, this is not a problem unique to these Chinese offici

It was a rhetorical question, and at the time it did add something to the discussion by way of saying "hey, this is not a problem unique to these Chinese officials". To be fair, it was phrased as a joke, and didn't have much in the way of exposition--because I assumed people wouldn't need it spelled out for them. As usual, a bad assumption.