A FEW DAYS after he took power in November 2012, Xi Jinping convened a “collective study” session of the Politburo. Looking at the 22 men and two women round the table in an imperial-era building in Zhongnanhai, the party’s headquarters, he may have felt uncomfortable. Most owed their positions to his predecessors, not him. The party had been traumatised by a fierce power struggle. Who was reliable? Beyond the high-walled compound, Chinese society was changing at a dizzying pace, with the emergence of a large middle class. An internet-fuelled information revolution was under way. Could the public be trusted?