Day: August 2, 2021

BEIJING (AP) — China said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a valid travel document or form of identification amid a bitter feud with London over a plan to allow millions of Hong Kong residents a route to residency and eventual citizenship. The announcement by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Friday throws up new uncertainty around the plan just hours after the U.K. said it would begin taking applications for what are called BNO visas beginning late Sunday. Under the plan, as many…

Over the last two decades, China has moved from the periphery to the very center of the world’s international relations. Given that China’s economy is now more than five times as large as it was at the turn of the millennium, that transition is hardly surprising. But many of China’s new international relationships, initially hopeful, have now turned hostile. China still has some down-at-the-heel allies, such as Pakistan and North Korea, but it is increasingly isolated from the developed countries that alone can facilitate its continued economic growth. For China,…

A Chinese flag attached to the back of a boat flaps in the wind as cargo containers sit on the dock of Shenzhen Port in Shenzhen, China. Daniel Berehulak | Getty Images News | Getty Images China is diversifying its supply of critical natural resources — a move that will shore up Beijing’s ability to weaponize trade against its geopolitical rivals, according to a newly published report by risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. “If China has a soft underbelly, it is its high dependency on foreign natural resources,” read the report…

Advertisement More than 300 people died in recent flooding in central China, authorities said Monday, three times the previously announced toll. The Henan provincial government said 302 people died and 50 remain missing. The vast majority of the victims were in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, where 292 died and 47 are missing. Ten others died in three other cities, officials said at a news conference in Zhengzhou. Record rainfall inundated the city on July 20, turning streets into rushing rivers and flooding at least part of a subway line. Video…