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As veteran party men they will know what comes next. They will be required to present themselves at a stated place and time with their confession. Their interrogations will drag on for months until their questioners are satisfied that they have incriminated themselves.

The case will then be handed over to civil prosecutors for a show trial. Corruption charges can lead to the death penalty. But the precedent of Chen Xitong, the mayor of Beijing ousted for graft in 1995, implies that very senior officials may get away with a prison sentence.

Business analysts in the city, which is China’s commercial capital and home to its main stock exchange, doubt that Chen was genuinely implicated in white-collar crimes. A smooth operator, he was a protégé of the former president Jiang Zemin, a fellow Shanghainese. This left him exposed to machinations in Beijing, while his role in turning Shanghai into a global business centre made him a symbol to the left of ideological decay.

Indeed, his downfall coincided with a visit to Shanghai by Sir John Major, the former prime minister, who represents the Carlyle Group, an American investment fund that has seen its plans for a big takeover in China caught up in Beijing’s political struggles.

Relations between the capital and the vibrant port city are historically strained: Shanghai has its own dialect, cuisine, a tradition of foreign trade and a reputation for decadence that led it to be known in the 1930s as the “Paris of the East”.

Today it is a showcase for reform, boasting a dazzling new centre, lively nightlife and a huge international business community, including many British investors.

This weekend many Shanghai citizens were thrilled by the noise and glamour of the grand prix, the latest in a series of events that symbolise its re-emergence as Asia’s pre-eminent business destination.

But the upheaval inside its ruling elite provides a reminder that in China politics remain secretive, unpredictable and dangerous. The well-honed language of denunciation in the Shanghai newspapers, reminiscent of the days when Mao Tse-tung used them to detonate the Cultural Revolution, hints that more is to come.

“Shanghai is facing a moment of truth,” proclaimed Hang Zheng, the man appointed as Chen’s acting successor, in a speech reported on Friday.

“We must fight against corruption and rally round the central committee and promote development in accordance with Hu Jintao’s requirements.”

A text of Hang’s remarks in the Liberation Daily left little doubt that it was an ultimatum to local officials.

The same newspaper headlined a pledge from Beijing to hand out £35 a month to citizens over 80, including 92 centenarians, to protect them against pension losses.

“The next move will be state intervention to deflate the property bubble in Shanghai and to impose regulations to stop house prices rising so fast,” said one local journalist.

“That will please the left but it will hurt speculators and foreign buyers,” he added.

There are rumours in Shanghai that the president will dispense with a second member of the city’s elite, vice-premier Huang Ju, a simple move on health grounds since he is reported to be seriously ill with cancer.

To some analysts, this dramatic return to the days of detentions and purges is merely a powerplay by Hu ahead of a central committee meeting next month and a big party congress next year. To others it means the president has struck an alliance with the old guard, whose doctrines of state control have been reasserted in a stream of recent edicts.

If that is the case, then the purge in Shanghai heralds a fundamental shift back to the left in China.

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