zhao: this is the school's app. reporter: using the app, zhao ying gets daily reports from xiaoxiao's teachers on her son's performance and his homework. zhao: in china, homework is a tough job fofor the parents. it can give you a heart condition. reporter: by 5:45 p.m., xiaoxiao has finished his math and english exercises. he and his mother take a break for dinner. his father works 12 hours a day, so xiaoxiao barely sees him during the week. chinese children are already being trained for their later workload. xiaoxiao: i think i have enough time to play. if i g get my homewowork doe ququickly, i have more, but if m too slow, i haveve less. sometitimes i have a an hour a, sometimes 40 minutes or just 20. itit depends. reporter: it's time for his evening class, a language and writing course. china's technophile society enthusiastically embraces new teaching methodsds, especiallyf they're more playful than traditional learning by rote. but zhao ying sometimes asks herself if she's pushing him too fafar. zhaoao: many c

the foreign ministry spokesman zhao lijian has done so repeatedly.ovid—19 might have been created by the us military, or that it was present in italy long before it appeared in china. there is nothing to suggest that any of this is true. the scientific consensus is clear — the virus firstjumped from animals to humans in wuhan in china, towards the end of 2019. at the other end of the spectrum, the italian nationalist leader matteo salvini has been telling his supporters that china created the coronavirus in a laboratory. it's another false claim, but it has been widely shared on social media. again, scientists are convinced that this is not a man—made virus. the brazilian president jair bolsonaro was censored by facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube for spreading false information. they removed posts of a video in which he claimed that the anti—malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was totally effective in treating covid—19. in fact, there are lots of trials and it is being used experimentally. but the overall impact of the drug is really unproven. a se

on march 12, china's deputy foreign ministry spokesman zhao lijian wrote on twitter," it might be u.smy who brought the epidemic to wuhan." the suggestion was repeated on chinese tv's arabic. >> ( translated ): do you believe a story that the new coronaviruu.is made by the a.? >> after dr. li wenliang's death, you know, there was this strong pressure, a demand for meaningful change on the political front. if y look at the outcome of this disinformation effort, it does actuay distract the domestic attention from making t.ange on the political fr it could have been stopped.ed. >> schifrin: president trump, who had praised presidt xi's and china's response in january, responded to the u.s. army claim by naming and shaming. >> why do you keep calling this the chinese virus? >> it comes from... china. china. that's why. >> schifrin: one week latered trump decl ceasefire, and spoke to xi jinping. that's when china's ministry off foreigirs, andhinese media, replaced disinformation with deflection. >> president donald trump and his team were not helpful. their problem is a lac serious commitm

spokesman zhao lijan sa it's too early to know the source, but denied it was the >> ( translated ): this is a enientific issue which should be studied by ssts and mecal experts. many well-known medical experts in the world also believe that claims of the so-called laboratory leaks have no scientific basis. >> schifrin: we turn to dr. luciana borio who served on the national security council staff as the director of medical and biodefense preparedness policy during the first two years of the trump administration. she's now a vice president at in-q-tel, a non-profit, investment oanization that funds technologies the intelligence community is interested in. dr. borio,hank you very much. welcome to the newshour. those two scenarios i just laid out, some kind of accideleal e from a lab in wuhan, and a possible releasin the nearby wet market, e either of those still possible? >> that's right, nick. so the national biodefense strategy contemplates three icalral categories of biol threats: the deliberate threats, an accident from a lab exposure or release; and naturally occurring exposure. we do

coronavirus, conceding the surgeon cases could be considerable, president trump told reporters" i hope zhaolis, bbc news, los angeles. —— hope they are wrong. china has come to a standstill for three minutes to remember the victims who died of the coronavirus, on a national day of mourning. the outbreak began in hubei province in december. the country has recorded more than 3,000 covid—i9 related deaths. let's get the latest from our china correspondent stephen mcdonell. good morning to you, stephen. an important day there. a marker. yes, flags are at half mast right across china. this is a traditional festival to remember those who have gone before us. but term sweeping day in 2020 has taken on extra significance. it's been declared a national day of mourning. at ten o'clock local time people stopped whatever they were doing, and that included cars in the street stop moving, drivers sounded their horns, alarms and other sirens were set off right across the country. everyone from the top leadership of the communist party down to ordinary people in the streets bowed their heads in remembranc