For the big-city mayors, it should have been disastrous news. A poll had found their approval ratings below 35 per cent. Their honesty had been ranked even lower, with less than 16 per cent seeing them as incorruptible.
In the West, these kinds of poll numbers would spell political death. The vultures would be circling. The mayors would be facing probable defeat at the next election.
But this poll was in China. Despite its devastating findings in several major cities, it vanished into obscurity with scarcely a ripple of interest.