More on the origin of the virus; Standing committee meeting; Hong Kong

Hi everyone, today’s issue is a bit ragged, I imagine more than a few of you share the mental exhaustion and challenge in focusing from the events of the last few days.

Key points from today’s newsletter:

• Xi chaired a politburo standing committee that according to the official readout focused mostly on continuing work to prevent a resurgence of cases, especially imported ones. It did mention a need to pay attention to the worsening global economic outlook. The wording from the readout about the global economic situation and "targeted policy and measures" spurred hope in some quarters, once again, of a big stimulus package. I would be cautious in over-reading that, I think it still looks like the focus will be on targeted and relatively restrained measures;

• President Trump made clear he is using the term “Chinese virus” as a way to push back on the claims by Zhao Lijian that maybe it came from the US Army, but in what could be seen as a bit of an olive branch he said he did not believe C…