XI URGES MILITARY COMBAT READINESS

President Xi Jinping urged the Chinese military on Tuesday to strive to overcome difficulties created by COVID-19 in order to realize this year's goals and missions given by the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, told national legislators from the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police Force that the novel coronavirus outbreak has had a profound effect on the world situation and China's security and development. Therefore, he said, the Chinese military must stick to bottom-line thinking, comprehensively strengthen combat training, respond effectively and in a timely way to sophisticated scenarios and firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security, development interests and its strategic stability.

Xi instructed the military to explore methods of carrying out training operations and other tasks in the presence of regular anti-epidemic measures, arrange their schedules in accordance with changing situations, gear up combat preparation and conduct battle drills in a flexible manner. The armed forces must improve operational capability in each and every aspect, he said.

The president made the remarks as he met with the military delegation at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress, which opened in Beijing on Friday. There are 289 national legislators from the armed forces, forming the largest group of lawmakers in the 13th NPC.

Xi said that the ongoing fight against COVID-19 provides a practical examination of the effectiveness of reforms of the national defense system and the military and also poses new challenge to such reforms.

The military should uphold the reforms' direction, road maps and measures and should focus on optimizing its policy system so it can achieve the reforms' objectives on time. It should also use reform-minded and innovative approaches to deal with problems exposed during epidemic control endeavors, he said.

The president told the military to utilize its advantages in medical research to speed up development of medicines and vaccines for COVID-19.

Scientific and technological innovation must be fostered and education and training of professionals must be boosted inside the military, he noted.

Xi spoke highly of the military's anti-epidemic efforts, saying that service members have been playing leading roles and contributing a great deal to the battle. He said the armed forces have once again proved to be heroic and trustworthy.

Xi also ordered the military to produce sound plans for its development in the coming five years. It should make detailed and accurate calculations on how to spend the defense budget to make sure every expenditure is worth making.

Moreover, he requested that troops support economic and social development and offer assistance to poverty alleviation work. Central and local governments and Party organizations must also support the military and help to address service members' problems, the president said.

Eight deputies from the armed forces shared their thoughts and suggestions on topics such as the military's epidemic control measures, combat training and exercises, future development plans and biological security capabilities.

PUBLIC HEALTH PRIMARY CONCERN IN LEGISLATIVE MOTIONS

National lawmakers have paid great attention to public health and epidemic prevention in motions submitted this year, calling for improved legislation in the sector.

Deputies to the third session of the 13th National People's Congress, the nation's top legislature, have submitted 506 motions as of Tuesday, according to the secretariat of the session.

Of the total, about a quarter deal with providing better legal guarantees for public health, the secretariat said.

"Some motions focus on boosting the prevention system of infectious diseases, calling for heavier punishments for those who do not report infection information truthfully, those who illegally consume wildlife or disturb epidemic control work," Guo Zhenhua, head of the secretariat's motion team, told media on Tuesday.

"Some also put forward motions on promoting our country's emergency system of public health and improving biosecurity by legislation," he added.

Apart from public health, issues closely related with people's livelihood, the country's governance system and capacity, and ecology and environment are also hot topics in the motions, according to him.

"We'll analyze the motions and submit to the session's presidium for review, and then give feedback to the deputies," he said.

In addition, the secretariat has received about 9,000 suggestions from national legislators, mainly on public health, poverty alleviation, strengthening employment and promoting medical and nursing services.

VIROLOGIST: LAB LEAKAGE CLAIMS PURE FABRICATION

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the target of COVID-19 virus conspiracy theories, did not possess the novel coronavirus before the outbreak, nor did it have the intention or the ability to create the virus, a senior virologist told China Daily on the sidelines of the annual national legislative and political advisory sessions.

Hence the conspiracy theories claiming the virus had escaped the institute's high biosecurity lab, which was modeled after ones from Europe, is "pure fabrication", said Yuan Zhiming, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan Branch and head of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory.

He also made it clear that no pathogen leaks or personnel infection accidents have ever occurred at the P4 lab.

Since the COVID-19 epidemic began, some foreign politicians and media outlets have made accusations with no evidence that the institute's biosafety level 4 lab, also known as the P4 lab, had manufactured the virus and accidentally released it to the world.

Yuan, also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, said such accusations constitute "unwarranted speculation that violates scientific consensus and most importantly, totally contradicts objective facts".

The institute first received samples of the coronavirus on Dec 30. On Jan 12, the institute was one of the entities authorized by the National Health Commission to publish the full genome sequence of the virus to the world, he said.

On Feb 19, The Lancet medical journal published a joint statement by 27 scientists from eight countries concluding that the novel coronavirus had a natural origin. On March 18, a paper published by the journal Nature Medicine, by virologists from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, also stated the coronavirus is "not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus".

"All analyses of the SARS-CoV-2 genome by global researchers have proved that it is entirely new and is different from already known viruses," Yuan said. "There is also no information within the novel coronavirus genome indicating it was man-made."

"With regard to designing and creating an entirely unknown virus, it is beyond the current capability of any laboratory of our institute. We have never engaged in, nor will we ever engage in trying to design and construct a new virus," he said.

As for speculation that the virus had escaped from the lab, Yuan said the notion is equally absurd because they did not have the virus before the outbreak, and the possibility of a leak is next to impossible given how the P4 lab was "designed, constructed and managed in accordance with strict international requirements."

The Wuhan P4 lab was one of the big scientific cooperation programs under the Sino-French Cooperation Framework Agreement, and it took officials and scientists from both countries nearly two decades to bring it to fruition, he said.

"We have constantly conducted international exchanges and experience sharing in laboratory operations and maintenance to improve our operating capability," Yuan said.

LADAKH FACE-OFF: CHINESE ARMY USED STONES, WIRED CLUBS DURING CLASH WITH INDIAN FORCES

During a recent face-off with the Indian forces in the Pangong Tso lake area in eastern Ladakh, the Chinese Army troops reportedly resorted to “unethical practices” as they used sticks, clubs with barbed wires and stones to attack Indian security forces.

“The Chinese troops were armed with stones and barbed wire clubs to target Indian soldiers in the area near the Pangong Tso lake during a recent face-off,” top sources confirmed the development to India Today.

“During the face-off, they [Chinese soldiers] attacked our soldiers with barbed wire clubs to cause them injuries but the Indian side retaliated in equal measure despite being outnumbered,” the sources said.

Sources added that the Chinese used their old strategy of using large number of troops to attack Indian soldiers, but their actions exposed the “unethical and unprofessional” face of the People’s Liberation Army.

Amid growing tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) after a face-off earlier this month in Ladakh and Sikkim sectors, China reportedly moved 5,000 soldiers on its side of the disputed border.

To strengthen its position, the Indian forces used heavy-lift transport aircraft to move troops in the eastern Ladakh sector.

CHINESE SURVEYING TEAM REACHES MOUNT QOMOLANGMA SUMMIT

The Chinese team tasked with remeasuring Mount Qomolangma successfully arrived at the summit at 11 am this morning, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

A surveyor's beacon, an important piece of measuring equipment, has been placed on the summit, the ministry said.

The surveyors will use a global navigation satellite system receiver, a gravimeter, snow-depth radar and a meteorological measuring instrument to determine the height of Qomolangma.

Innovations applied in the latest survey include the application of the BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System, domestic surveying equipment, the airborne gravimeter and 3D interactive virtual reality.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first successful expedition to Qomolangma from the Tibet side and the 45th anniversary of China's first accurate measurement of Qomolangma's height.

The measurement was jointly organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Administration of Sports of China and the regional government of the Tibet autonomous region.

The 1st Geodetic Surveying Brigade under the ministry, as well as members of the China Mountaineering Team, are the two parties undertaking the challenging mission, according to Wang Yongfeng, deputy head of the mountaineering sports management center with the sports administration.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chinese surveyors have conducted six rounds of scaled measurement and scientific research on Mount Qomolangma and released the height of the peak twice in 1975 and 2005, with findings of 8,848.13 meters and 8,844.43 meters respectively.

In 1975, when the Chinese mountaineering team scaled Mount Qomolangma, no professional surveyors reached the top. But the mountaineers took a survey marker to the summit, which helped surveyors from nine observation stations near the mountain to calculate it stood 8,848.13 meters high.

HK LEADER VOWS SUPPORT FOR LEGISLATION

Legislating on national security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is undoubtedly within the remit of the central authorities, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday.

The Hong Kong leader pledged full support and cooperation from the SAR as the central government carries forward national security legislation in the city.

Speaking to reporters before the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lam dismissed speculation that the draft decision of the National People's Congress on national security legislation in Hong Kong would "erode" the "one country, two systems" principle and the SAR's high degree of autonomy.

On the contrary, the move is to ensure the successful implementation of the principle of "one country, two systems", by improving the related legal system and enforcement mechanisms in strict accordance with the national Constitution and the Basic Law, Lam said.

National security is a matter within the remit of the central authorities, she stressed. It is only legitimate for the NPC, as the highest organ of State power, to legislate on national security in the Hong Kong SAR, Lam said.

The SAR leader noted that the central government is unswerving and determined in carrying forward the legislation and pledged that her administration will extend full support and cooperation, regardless of any possible difficulties.

Albert Chen Hung-yee, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong and a member of the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law Committee under the NPC Standing Committee, stressed that even though Article 23 of the Basic Law stipulates that the SAR should legislate on its own on safeguarding national security, it does not mean such legislative power is exclusive, or that the central government has given up or transferred such power.

The SAR failed to legislate after almost 23 years since its return to China, Chen noted. It is legitimate for the central government to exercise its power to legislate in order to deal with situations where national security has been seriously damaged in the SAR, Chen said.

The legal veteran hoped the new legislation would demonstrate the spirit of the "one country, two systems" principle, and respect the differences in legal systems between the mainland and the Hong Kong SAR.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill