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Opinion

Asia's 2021 bull market in emperor-has-no-clothes moments

Xi Jinping happier than most to see this year stagger to a close

| China
Xi Jinping on screen at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, pictured on Nov. 12: the future price China's 1.4 billion people will pay for Xi's myth-building campaign rose exponentially in 2021.   © AP

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."

No one expected grand things from 2021. Most of us would have been thrilled if it were slightly calmer than COVID-ravaged 2020. About the best thing Asia can say is that these chaotic 12 months will soon be over. And mercifully so.

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