THE ECONOMIST: China’s new rulers: Princelings and the goon state. “Since the late 1970s, when China began to turn its back on Maoist totalitarianism, the country has gone through several cycles of relative tolerance of dissent, followed by periods of repression. But the latest backlash, which was first felt late last year and intensified in late February, has raised eyebrows. It has involved more systematic police harassment of foreign journalists than at any time since the early 1990s. More ominously, activists such as Mr Ai have often simply disappeared rather than being formally arrested.” The nomenklatura take their privileged position in the Workers’ Paradise seriously. God help anyone who actually wants equality or freedom. All the talk about that stuff is just for the rubes.