Everyone’s favourite party game in Beijing is to guess what sort of president Xi Jinping will be. Since it is hard to say precisely what kind of president Hu Jintao has been even after 10 years in office, that is easier said than done.

The road from Mao Zedong to the personality-free zone occupied, appropriately, by Mr Hu has been one in which the Communist party has successively drained its leaders of charisma. Instead of a Mao, who could send the country lurching from one insane policy to the next, we now have a nine-member committee of engineers and technocrats. Mao collectivised land. His successors collectivised decision making instead.

Chinese leaders compete in what one diplomat describes as “the shark pool of shark pools”. Those who eventually swim to the bloodied surface are tough. Above all, they know how to avoid offence. Mr Xi rose to the pinnacle of the 83m-member Communist party by not stepping out of line.