The drama in Chinese soccer continues (to get up to speed, check here). The latest move is for the clubs to demand the Chinese Football Association (CFA) to let the clubs, manage, operate and own their own clubs. Seven of the clubs have asked for the championship to be suspended until various reforms are implemented. In the interim the clubs will play "friendlies" with the proceeds going to charity. The CFA is planning to respond on Tuesday.

This saga is a small example of the changes gripping China. Suddenly the old command-and-control style represented by the CFA is being overturned by clubs with significant financial interests in appropriate outcomes. When people have something to defend and protect, they become a lot more interested in those that govern them. That is the challenge faced by both the CFA and in a much broader sense by the Communist Party itself.

Funnily enough at the same time China is implementing in law private property rights. While these have existed in theory via the constitution, this law is the first real step to making property rights facts on the ground.