The sudden sacking of Chen Liangyu, the Communist party boss of Shanghai and a member of the powerful politburo, for alleged involvement in a pensions scandal has exposed the twin fault-lines in China's political economy: fragile unity among the ruling elites and pervasive official corruption.
Much of Mr Chen's case remains murky. The evidence provided by the Chinese government for his dismissal is so sketchy that cynics might treat this case as just another example of unremitting rivalry within the Chinese leadership; especially because the political demise of Mr Chen, rumoured to have fallen foul of his senior colleagues in Beijing, has long been expected.
