BEIJING in the winter of 2016 is a bit like Moscow in the winter of 1936: every day brings news of more purged officials and you never know who will be next. On February 4th four more high-ranking party members were kicked out, bringing to 67 the number known to have been investigated, expelled or sentenced this year alone. Among prominent establishment figures who have been dealt with in such ways recently are the head of the National Bureau of Statistics; a former chairman of Wuhan Iron and Steel, a large state-owned firm; and a former deputy chief of the country’s police.
