I’m trying to think what sensible thoughts I could add to the simple fact of the round up of Cn nationals employees of Mintz. I can’t. It’s not that I’m speechless. That’s so trite. Any of us who have been following Cn or in Cn for any time (me, 1969 and 1981 respectively) are deeply aware of the reach of the party. There was a time some of us thought things might change. Xi changed that initially with early statements leaked in 2013 (think what historical nihilism means) and then emphatically in the changes at the Oct 2017 Congress (my comment on that was used by the party to force my removal from the senior management team at Nottingham Ningbo campus - I was then associate provost for planning and strategy). That marked the end of reform and opening period for me. But that end had begun around 2007-8 with changes the Hu-Wen gov brought in, the renewed focus on sci-tech competition, the wind back of local elections and so on. Xi moved these ahead, accelerated and made them his own. Reading his speeches 2014-18 when I was in Cn (that time 2013-20) I struggled to understand why so many hanged onto the belief that positive change was possible. I became increasing concerned and spelled this out in a keynote address to economics conference in Xiamen in 2016 (I could see some party apparatchiks bristling as I spoke but not approach me though no doubt the organizers got a bucketing for inviting me). Like many who have spent many years in Cn, I know how little I know or can ever know about how the CCP works to be as confident as are too many in think tanks and gov policy units.