CHINA PERSPECTIVE

The South China Morning Post frames the event with Beijing's distance: 'amid Epstein files furore.' The word 'furore' is an editorial choice -- not 'scandal,' not 'controversy,' but a word evoking noise and agitation rather than substance. For China, the Epstein dossier is a narrative windfall: it confirms the thesis that American elites are corrupt and the US political system incapable of reforming itself. The SCMP doesn't develop the content of the Epstein files -- what matters isn't what they reveal but that the American system tears itself apart over them. Beijing watches the revolving door of attorneys general with intelligence methodology: Who is Todd Blanche? What's his relationship with Trump? What are the implications for China-related DOJ cases (industrial espionage, TikTok, Huawei)? Bondi's firing is, for China, a window of opportunity -- a DOJ in transition is a DOJ that doesn't prosecute.