Beijing, February 27 (Nikkei): Early last year, President Xi Jinping had warned his Chinese Communist Party cadres to be prepared for unforeseen incidents (black swans) and uncontrollable rampages (gray rhinos) in the year to come.
China has always faced game-changing events in years that end in “9.” Those include the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, war breaking out between China and Vietnam in 1979, and most of all, the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989.
Xi’s fears of a cursed year became true. The novel coronavirus that began in December 2019 was a black swan that arrived in Wuhan, multiplied and then flew to all parts of China. Eventually, it turned into a gray rhino stomping across national borders to other parts of the world
