Is China still a communist country? This question is prompted by new figures showing that the state-controlled sector of the economy is expanding and this has encouraged the small army of China watchers to ponder whether past claims of Chinese capitalism's ascendancy remain valid.
Meanwhile, the totalitarian nature of China is underlined by controls on the political and social life of the nation which show every sign of expanding rather than retreating. Hardly a day passes without news of some government edict or action to curb the very limited freedoms which have sneaked their way into the public arena.
Recently, for example, there were reports of an 'anti-vulgarity campaign', aimed at suppressing one of the things that most alarm totalitarian regimes - humour. It's part of a media crackdown on poking fun at the regime.
In another case, former reporter Xie Zhaoping was arrested after publishing a book on the fate of those forced to leave their homes when the Sanmen Gorge dam and reservoir were built in the 1950s.
None of this is out of the ordinary. But there was some surprise at recent moves to recruit global executive talent for state enterprises, implying a desire to boost their operations.
And there was new data from the World Bank, which shows that industrial production by state corporations is increasing faster than output from private firms.