HUANGSHAN, China — In February 2015, a group of about 15 people met at a restaurant in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. This past August, four of the attendees were convicted by the Tianjin Second Intermediate People’s Court of “subversion of state power,” and details from their conversation were used as evidence against them.

In the last three decades, China has made the world marvel at an economic miracle that has brought hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty. The quality of life for millions of Chinese people has skyrocketed in just a generation.

All along, China’s leaders have had an implicit pact with the people: We’ll leave you alone if you leave us alone. Get as rich as you’d like, and you’ll have a lot of personal freedom, but steer clear of politics. For many older Chinese who lived through the Mao years, the expansion of personal freedoms has felt revolutionary.

The convictions of the four men in the Tianjin court are another sign that the terms of the pact are changing. The government of President Xi Jinping is hypersensitive to criticism and will no longer stay out of our personal lives. Private conversations are fair game for punishment.