When the axe fell, it was sharper than expected. Ever since the unexplained dismissal last month of the Communist Party chief of Chongqing, Bo Xilai, rumours had swirled about his family's alleged wrongdoings. On April 10th the government broke its silence, accusing Mr Bo of "serious", though still unspecified, wrongdoing and, more startling, making Mr Bo's wife a suspect in the murder of a British businessman. The political career of Mr Bo, one of China's most prominent politicians, appears to be over. The risk of further political turbulence in China is not. Mr Bo's case has created the most damaging split in the party leadership since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
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