After many years of spectacular economic growth and of what seemed — on the surface at least — like remarkable cohesion within China’s political elite, the past two years have involved what to many analysts has been an astonishing amount of turmoil at the highest levels of the Chinese political establishment. There are many precedents in recent history for China’s 30 years of rapid, investment-led growth. However, these precedents suggest that we should not have been surprised by the recent turmoil.