Protests in China: for every report of residents being liberated from a locked-down compound over the weekend, it seemed there was another of police responding violently. Photograph: New York Times In 2011, Xi Jinping, China’s then vice-president, told his US counterpart, Joe Biden, that the “Arab Spring” roiling North Africa and the Middle East happened because leaders across the region lost touch with their people. A decade later, and less than six weeks after Xi coasted to a third term as head of the Chinese Communist party and military, the president is in a quandary after repeating their mistake. Does...