Given all that, China’s ruling bureaucracy seems basically safe. Major malefactors have reason to be a bit nervous, for Xi will try to halt the worst practices; he cannot completely ignore public demands for improvement. Years ago the manic policies of Chairman Mao caused millions of deaths and inflicted enormous damage on China. But when he ranted about the dangers of a self-serving bureaucracy, he wasn’t all wrong.

Robert Keatley is a former editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal and the South China Morning Post, both of Hong Kong.