On the afternoon of February 17, Wu Guijun’s supporters erupted in anger when told his trial’s opening session had been cancelled. They harangued the judge, who had informed Mr Wu’s lawyers that the prosecutor was unavailable. Dozens more marched to the Chinese court’s administrative office to demand that Mr Wu, accused of leading a labour protest that allegedly “disturbed public order”, be allowed his day in court.

Mr Wu’s family members and co-workers, backed by dozens of labour activists, had been waiting more than three hours for the trial to start at the Bao’an District People’s Court in Shenzhen, the manufacturing centre bordering Hong Kong. Few of them had ever heard William Gladstone’s famous maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied”, but instinctively they knew the truth of it.

The mini-revolt was successful. The judge quickly put Mr Wu’s case back on the docket, tracked down the prosecutor and moved the hearing to a bigger courtroom that could accommodate the large turnout. It was a small victory, but one that illustrated the dynamism of a sophisticated network of labour activists that is outpacing the government-sanctioned All-China Federation of Trade Unions.