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Zhao Ziyang, a man who might have really reformed China, has died. The septuagenarians who run the country clearly fear that any gatherings for a funeral or memorials could turn into demonstrations, so they have gotten around to convening an emergency meeting. What’s telling about this is that Zhao was clearly on his deathbed for the last several days. So is the leadership incompetent, hopelessly ossified, gridlocked, too afraid of bringing up unpleasantries to face them, or a combination of all of these? Were China the dynamic dictatorship it was fifty years ago, this meeting would have happened a week ago and would not have hit the papers at all.

Behind the imposing gates and guards, a geriatic student council appears to be in charge of 1.3 billion people, a nuclear arsenal, and an enormous, rapidly transforming economy.