North Korea may have served up 2016's first "Black Swans" as the most isolated regime tested a hydrogen bomb. Or not, as there's widespread skepticism Kim Jong Un has the technological prowess to move so rapidly up the weapons-of-mass-destruction ladder.
Even if Pyongyang is exaggerating — hardly a first — last Wednesday's act was a wake-up call for distracted world powers, and in a good way. The silver lining here is that China, Kim's sugar daddy and geopolitical fail-safe, seems even more annoyed than the White House.
This isn't the first time Beijing joined global condemnation over North Korean nuclear tests (it did so in 2013). But speculation is rife that President Xi Jinping is furious and mulling ways to apply leverage. The conventional wisdom is that North Korea just highlighted the limits of Beijing's ability to rein in its recalcitrant ally. The reality is China has barely tried. Is this a game changer?