【明報專訊】AROUND 6 pm yesterday (June 11), the mainland's official media broke a piece of news quite out of the blue - that Zhou Yongkang, who was a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, had been convicted on three charges in the first instance and sentenced to life imprisonment by Tianjin Municipal No 1 Intermediate People's Court. The mainland authorities had long been signalling, through official and unofficial channels, that Zhou would stand trial in open court in accordance with the law, and people had been full of eager anticipation. But the latest development seems anti-climactic. Many are surprised that he had pleaded guilty and had been given a sentence before it became known that he would be brought to trial. Compared with Bo Xilai's, Zhou's trial has put the clock back in terms of judicial openness and transparency. That does not help bolster Chinese people's confidence in the rule of law.