Beijing Letter: Revival of conspicuous consumption a sign of shift in Chinese policy

It was about nine o'clock in the evening, the air was warm and the pavements busy with after-dinner strollers when I saw it for the second time, a bright yellow Ferrari cruising past with the hood down. The first sighting was a couple of weeks ago in a different part of the city and in the days in between I spotted a purple Lamborghini and a vast, black Maybach close to where I live. Such cars were once a common sight in Beijing and the underground car parks of the city's expensive apartment blocks are still full of them. But…