I should add to my last comment. I am not an expert on China, I think to claim that you should speak the language and have lived there or spent a lot more time there than I have.
But, I have been there many times and beyond in-laws, I have a few very close friends who are Chinese government officials (city and prefectural level of various sorts). These are regular people, just like anyone else and they are conscientious about what they do and genuinely try to make life better for people in the areas where they work. They are my friends, like I said. In general, I never talk much about politics with them, although they have told me a bit about what their jobs entail. But, this last time, in private, more than one told me that things had changed quite a bit in the last year and a half, and they had some worries. (Some of the changes they said were good, especially a long-needed emphasis on weeding out corruption, but they also said there was a whole lot more emphasis on "ideological purity").
The number of socialist propaganda banners was increased a lot compared to previous years.
We will see how this plays out. It is hard from where I sit to imagine what all lies behind it, but it must be pretty significant if it leads to basically firing one of the most successful player/coaches in Chinese history! To me the idea that it has something to do with KLH just doesn't seem all that plausible, but like I said, I am no expert.
