The role of the public in national politics is always hard to judge. The result is that analysts often focus exclusively and myopically on the leadership, when in reality – witness Tiananmen – crucial political pressures may come from below.

Ian Johnson tries to document these hidden pressures with three case studies of ordinary citizens struggling for justice, and, by implication, political change in China. His conclusion: the independent power of the Chinese people is eroding Party control.

As a research methodology, using three arbitrarily chosen cases to make this claim is dubious at best. But as a book, it works. The stories have great emotional power and are told grippingly and with well-chosen context.