CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING MEETS PLA, URGES BATTLE PREPAREDNESS

Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 26 called on the military "to think

about worst-case scenarios" and "scale up battle preparedness".

He made the remarks during his annual meeting with the People's Liberation

Army's (PLA's) representatives attending the National People's Congress or

Parliament in Beijing.

Mr. Xi had also referred to "battle preparedness" during his meeting with

the PLA in 2019. This year, his speech focused on the post-pandemic

situation, as he heard the PLA members of Parliament reporting on

"strengthening training amid the epidemic, and accelerating capacity

building on biosecurity defence".

Mr. Xi said the epidemic "brought a profound impact on the global landscape

and on China's security and development as well". He "ordered the military

to think about worst-case scenarios, scale up training and battle

preparedness, promptly and effectively deal with all sorts of complex

situations and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and

development interests," the official Xinhua news agency reported.

IN A FIRST, TWITTER ADDS FACT-CHECK WARNINGS TO TRUMP TWEETS

A post by US President Donald Trump has been given a fact-check label by

Twitter for the first time.

President Trump tweeted: "There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will

be anything less than substantially fraudulent."

Twitter put a warning label under the post and a subsequent tweet under its

new policy on misleading information.

Mr Trump responded by tweeting again, saying the social media giant "is

completely stifling free speech".

Twitter's notification displays a blue exclamation mark underneath the

tweets, suggesting readers "get the facts about mail-in ballots".

Twitter's link directs users to a page on which Mr Trump's claims about

mail-in ballots are described as "unsubstantiated". The social media company

cites reporting on the issue by CNN, the Washington Post and others.

This is followed by a "what you need to know" section where Twitter corrects

what it says are false claims by the US president.

In his new tweets, Mr Trump accused Twitter of interfering in the US

presidential election scheduled for 3 November 2020.

He said that the social media company was "completely stifling free speech,

and I, as president, will not allow it to happen".

SECURITY TIGHT AS HONG KONG SET TO DEBATE CHINA NATIONAL ANTHEM BILL

Hundreds of riot police took up posts in and around Hong Kong's financial

district on Wednesday ahead of a debate at the city's Legislative Council

over a bill that would criminalise disrespect of China's national anthem.

Protests have returned to the streets of the Chinese-ruled city after

Beijing last week proposed national security laws that drew global

condemnation amid fears they will curb the freedoms enjoyed in the global

financial centre.

Protesters used bins and other debris to block some roads and police warned

commuters to expect delays.

Chinese authorities and the Beijing-backed government in Hong Kong say there

is no threat to the city's autonomy and the laws will be tightly focused.

Demand for virtual private networks (VPNs) have surged in Hong Kong as

residents try to ensure their internet activity remains free of central

government control. Authorities erected a wall made of two-metre-tall (6

feet), white and blue plastic barriers filled with water around the city's

Legislative Council, extending across a nearby park up to Victoria Harbour.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States would announce

before the end of the week a strong response to the planned security

legislation for Hong Kong. When asked at a news briefing if the response

would include sanctions, he said: "No, it's something you're going to be

hearing about ... before the end of the week, very powerfully I think."

The anthem bill is set for a second reading on Wednesday and is expected to

be turned into law next month. It requires China's "March of the Volunteers"

to be taught in schools and sung by organisations, and imposes jail terms or

fines on those who disrespect it.

Opponents say it represents another example of Beijing encroaching on Hong

Kong, while supporters say the city has a duty to ensure national symbols

are treated respectfully.

The city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, told reporters that there was "no

need for us to worry" over the move being considered by China's ceremonial

National People's Congress.

"Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values," Ms. Lam

said. "Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation for the bigger benefit of

the great majority of Hong Kong people."

TRUMP THREATENS TO PULL GOP CONVENTION OUT OF NORTH CAROLINA

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to pull the Republican Convention out

of North Carolina if its Governor did not guarantee that there would be no

restrictions on crowd numbers. The convention is an event to nominate the

GOP's presidential candidate (expected to be Mr Trump).

As the U.S.'s 50 States are in various stages of reopening, the number of

coronavirus deaths approached 100,000.

Tweeting to the Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, a Democrat, Mr.

Trump said the GOP was spending millions constructing the arena for the

convention and that Mr. Cooper was still in "shutdown mood", unable to

guarantee if a full crowd would be allowed to attend the August 24-27

convention.

" They [the Republicans] must be immediately given an answer by the Governor

as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. If not,

we will be reluctantly forced to find, with all the jobs and economic

development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. This is

not something I want to do," Mr. Trump wrote on Monday, which was the

Memorial Day holiday in the U.S.

Mr. Cooper tweeted out a statement in response, which said the State would

review its plans for the convention and would rely on data while making

decisions.

CHINESE LAWMAKERS PROPOSE FOREIGN STATES IMMUNITIES LAW

Chinese lawmakers have proposed formulating a foreign states immunities law

following malicious litigations filed against China over its COVID-19

response.

The move will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese

citizens as well as foreign investors, said Ma Yide, a deputy to the

National People's Congress (NPC) and a law researcher at the Beijing Academy

of Social Sciences.

It will also counteract malicious litigations towards China in countries

like the United States over the COVID-19 response, Ma told reporters Tuesday

on the sidelines of the annual NPC session.

He said the lack of such a law has emerged as a prominent issue in the

current epidemic as some countries, led by the United States, tried to shift

the blame for their own governments' incompetence on COVID-19 response.

Some groups and individuals even cited the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

of the United States to bring litigations to the Chinese government and

relevant departments, he added.

"This is a show of hegemony and power politics and a reminder of the

necessity and urgency for China to formulate a foreign states immunities

law," Ma said. Over 35 lawmakers from the NPC Beijing delegation have

endorsed the proposal, which has been accepted by the session and forwarded

to special committees of the national legislature for study.

NEW VIRUSES ARE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, SAYS CHINA'S 'BAT WOMAN' FROM WUHAN

VIROLOGY INSTITUTE

New viruses being discovered are only the "tip of the iceberg", according to

a leading Wuhan-based virologist at the centre of Covid-19-related

conspiracy theories because of her research on coronaviruses found in bats.

"The unknown viruses that we have discovered are actually just the tip of

the iceberg," Shi Zhengli, deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of

Virology, said in an interview to Chinese state television on Monday. She

added it was important to carry out advanced research on pathogens.

Shi is known as China's "bat woman", as she has worked on coronaviruses

found in the flying mammals for years, most notably inside abandoned mines

in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

She has kept a low profile since the Covid-19 outbreak in the central

Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, only occasionally commenting on social

media, including once to deny that she had defected from China after the

pandemic rapidly spread.

In a short interview with state television channel CGTN on Monday, Shi

defended China's transparency in handling the outbreak and emphasised the

need for more research on viruses.

"If we want to protect humans from viruses or avoid a second outbreak of new

infectious diseases, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses

carried by wild animals in nature and then give early warnings," she said.

"And we must be able to store some drugs and reagents for detection,

prevention or treatment for future prevention and control," Shi added.

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA PASSED PEAK OF CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC, ORDERS WORLD WAR II

VICTORY PARADE

President Vladimir Putin said Russia has passed the peak of the coronavirus

epidemic and ordered preparations to resume for military parades marking the

75th anniversary of the World War II victory.

Moscow and other cities should stage the postponed May 9 Victory Day parades

on June 24, "given that the situation in the country as a whole, in most

regions and in the Armed Forces is stable, and that it is stabilizing in

many places after the peak of infections," Putin told Defense Minister

Sergei Shoigu in a videoconference Tuesday.

The Kremlin had planned particularly grand commemorations for the 75th

anniversary this year, before Putin was forced in April to postpone the

nationwide events as the coronavirus spread. The annual Red Square parade in

Moscow involving thousands of troops and Russia's most sophisticated weapons

has long been an occasion for him to project a sense of power and national

pride.

With Russia's economic activity declining by a third during a two-month

nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of the epidemic, the Kremlin is now

seeking to limit the fallout.

The rate of new infections has started to slow in Russia, which over the

weekend slipped to third place in the number of total cases globally, after

Brazil and the U.S.

Diagnoses rose 2.5% in the past day to 362,342. Russia reported a record 174

deaths in the same period, taking the total to 3,807.

The Kremlin is considering holding both the parade and a referendum that

would open the way for Putin to remain in power until 2036, RBC website

reported last week, citing four unidentified officials.

The referendum, which was planned for April 22 before the epidemic derailed

it, initially seemed to be a formality after parliament and the

Constitutional Court took less than a week to rubber-stamp the changes

endorsed by Putin that allow him to seek two more six-year terms when his

current one ends in 2024.