On October 12, Katie Zacharia took over as White House press secretary. Five days later, she was out. In between, an old comment dismissing China’s rise resurfaced, and Beijing had a short response of its own.

In an interview with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec, Zacharia recalled the mood in the United States back in 2016. There was growing talk that China was on the rise and could challenge America’s position in the world. She said she couldn’t understand why people took that prospect seriously.

Her explanation was blunt: “They don’t even have proper toilets.”

Zacharia had lived in Beijing from 2011 to 2013, so she was talking about a country she had actually experienced, not one she knew only from headlines. But her verdict reduced China’s prospects as a global power to a single, rather basic measure of development.

For years, China has often been portrayed through a familiar contrast: its economy may be growing, but everyday life is supposedly still backward. The problem with that picture is that it can become so fixed that people keep relying on it long after the country itself has changed.

On October 16, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was asked about Zacharia’s remarks. Her response was brief: “She’s welcome to come and see China when she has the opportunity.”

No lengthy rebuttal. No point-by-point argument. Just an invitation to come back and take another look.

Meanwhile, the remark sparked an unexpected response online. People who had lived in or traveled around China began posting videos of public toilets, tourist facilities and everyday amenities, pushing back against her portrayal of the country. What began as a dismissive comment became an opportunity for people to show what China looks like today.

But Zacharia’s own time in the White House was already off to a rocky start.

Her first press briefing lasted around 14 minutes, and she took questions from just three media outlets. Her legal credentials also came under scrutiny after questions were raised about her claims to be a lawyer and her failure to pass the California bar exam.

Then, on October 16, Trump said he had suggested she step aside. Her tenure ended after just five days, making it the shortest of any White House press secretary.

There’s no evidence that her comments about China’s toilets had anything to do with her departure. But the timing made for an extraordinary week.

And perhaps the most revealing part of her remark wasn’t the insult itself. It was the assumption behind it: that a country’s future can be judged by a snapshot from the past.

China doesn’t need every foreign politician to approve of its development. But anyone trying to assess its place in the world today will need more than memories from a decade ago—and a verdict about toilets.