HONG KONG -- China has performed a miracle over the last quarter century, lifting hundreds of millions of people from dire poverty and turning the country into an economic powerhouse. In the process, Beijing has raised people's expectations not only of a better life but of a fairer society.

Now, however, there are now many who feel that the government has let them down.

Sometimes, a tragedy causes the government to sit up and take notice. One such event was the beating to death last year in Guangzhou of a 27-year-old university graduate, Sun Zhigang, because he could not show his temporary residence card. The outcry that followed caused the State Council to rescind a regulation allowing police to detain people who failed to produce local residence permits.