On July 17, 2017, People’s Daily published a commentary on its front page saying that “We should guard against both the ‘black swan’ and the ‘gray rhino', various risk signs cannot be taken lightly”. Suddenly, the “gray rhino” became a buzzword. This week, Professor Liu Zhibiao, Dean of Yangtze IDEI, held discussions with relevant experts and scholars on the topic “Will the Gray Rhino Harm China’s Young Market Economy”. Definition: Gray RhinoThe term “Gray Rhino” was proposed by Michele Wucker at the World Economic Forum in January 2013, who later wrote a book titled The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore. Black swan refers to unforeseeable and occasional small-probability incidents with huge impact, while gray rhino refers to risks with high probability and huge impact. We should be aware of the latter as they are often very easily neglected. “Gray rhino” risks are not random and unexpected events, but high probability events that occur after a series of warning signals and signs.
