Last week’s crash involving two Chinese bullet trains is principally a human tragedy. Many lives have been lost, and the nation has in recent days been transfixed by the harrowing stories of the survivors.

Beyond the human suffering, the accident shines a light on some of the flaws that disfigure China’s rapid modernisation and also raise doubts about the durability of its extraordinary growth.

China may have acquired the gleaming trappings of a modern industrial economy, but it has not developed the governance systems to match. Power, whether that of the producer or the state, still goes largely unchecked by public freedoms such as those of expression and association. There is limited accountability through the agency of the media; through the ballot box it remains non-existent.