Do you know personally some high-ranking officers in Beijing? I guess not :-)
I alreay experienced and know the "中国人民的生存现状" at my high school time:
有钱的富死，有权的嚣张死，有车的逍遥死，..
while, those 有钱/有权/有车/有房子/currently 有二奶的..., they are having a good life! One word - 有关系!
I have classmates who come from very ‘high-ranking’ family in the social structure of China, while personal connections between me and them are never established due to my youth and naive at school time. I can let you know among them, some can afford college tuition and let their kids study in USA decent universities such as Dartmoth, Berkeley, U of Houston, etc in year of 1990 --- just think about it, in the year 1990 many Chinese including ordinary family in Beijing only earn monthly salary of RMB3000 as average.
