All the ballyhoo, the stepped up security, the media headlines, told you that something important was going on in Beijing the week before last. But in China's typical way, the swirling debate at the meeting of the country's 350 most powerful leaders at the Fourth Plenum was securely behind closed doors: Outsiders had to wait for the final communiqué and to be able to read between the lines of it.
The message is that China is embarked on a major reform dedicated, leaders claim, to improving the rule of law, but subject to the will of the ruling Communist Party. This is really rule by law, not the rule of law.
The subtext is that President and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has not managed to get things all his own way, in spite of a new cult of personality around him.