That China would choose - and it would be a choice - to bring up Skul specifically says something. Skul has had a way of bending China's neutrality, presumably to his benefit as much as hers. Well, isn't that an interesting little tidbit.

"If someone didn't save it every now and then, there wouldn't really be an opportunity to keep that practice up, would there?"

Of course, when you're dead, you're rather neutral by default. But China's so-called 'neutrality' was a thing of power, a position to be used and molded and crafted to best fit the needs of the moment. Manipulation of that caliber was dangerous on it's own; combined with China's magic it's practically a nuclear deterrent. Pepper's job is to make smoothing the establishment of a government in China's best interest without landing her in the Oval Office, so to speak.

"What would make those risks worth it?"