> If anything, this seems like a fluff piece trying keep in step with the "evil, scary China" narrative. I don't think it is 'evil, scary'. Evan Osnos has bee

> If anything, this seems like a fluff piece trying keep in step with the "evil, scary China" narrative. I don't think it is 'evil, scary'. Evan Osnos has been in China sufficiently long, as a profile journalist, to not fluff a piece. But I get a lack of direction. The meat comes in the middle, but fizzles out without follow-through, flipping to Bo and other stuff. But the change in normal day-to-day China since he took power, particularly the past 2 years since he took power has been stunning, particularly where it is most visible: most (not all) high end restaurants. They have little to no high receipt custom (people on seats are still there, but now not spending ridiculous amounts of money), not because their former customers were exclusively government, but no one wants the association. Corruption could be as deep as it ever was, the fear of a Xi audit is not there, but the fear of someone proposing a Xi style audit, publicly, and the chiming in of the government in support and guaranteeing a prosecution is an echo of Mao's 1960s policies. tl;dr: Don't be corrupt, you will be prosecuted, because people think Xi thinks so.