The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic from within China is more than just a scientific coincidence; it is merely the continuation of a centuries-long pattern in which the Asian country has been a hotbed for some of the world’s deadliest disease outbreaks.

China’s long history of spreading fatal illnesses worldwide dates back to the 19th century’s third bubonic plague pandemic, which scientists are certain began from what now has become the province of Yunnan southwest of China and spread from there to Hong Kong, other Asian territories, and all the way to the United States.

However, some studies have raised the possibility that China may have also harbored the more ancient and immensely more devastating second plague pandemic that had ravaged the world during the 14th century and remains to this day the most lethal global epidemic recorded in human history.