News Analysis Chinese leader Xi Jinping cannot seem to get a break. Perhaps he does not deserve one. This year, he has faced Evergrande, real estate excesses generally, a renewed spate of COVID-19 infections, and sporadic power shortages across the country. Most recently, Beijing has had to deal with a food panic. It seems that a poorly thought-out government communication prompted fears of shortages and the inevitable hoarding. The authorities have had to walk back their directive, a rare enough event in China at any time, but more interesting is what the panic implies about public thinking. Understandably, Chinese people are skittish after the pandemic lockdowns and quarantines, but the tendency to panic also suggests something more fundamental—that the Chinese people, intuitively if not explicitly, are well aware of the weaknesses in China’s centralized approach to economics. The sequence of events is straightforward enough. Beijing, accidentally no doubt, laid the groundwork …