China planes flying near island daily: Taiwan

Taipei, July 22

China is sending military planes near Taiwan with increasing frequency in what appears to be a stepping up of its threat to use force to take control of the island, Taiwan’s foreign minister said Wednesday.

Such flights are more frequent than reported in the media and have become “virtually a daily occurrence,” Joseph Wu told reporters.

Along with Chinese military exercises simulating an attack on Taiwan, the flights by China are causing major concern for Taiwan’s government, Wu said.

“What it is doing now is unceasingly preparing to use force to resolve the Taiwan problem,” Wu said.

China claims the self-ruling island democracy as its own territory and threatens to use the People’s Liberation Army to bring it under its control. The sides split in a civil war in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the former Japanese colony as the Communist Party took control in mainland China. — AP

UK to open citizenship for Hongkongers in Jan

London: Britain’s route to citizenship for almost three million people in Hong Kong will open in January 2021, and applicants will not need a job to come to the country, interior minister Priti Patel said on Wednesday. “We are planning to open the Hong Kong British National Overseas Visa from January 2021,” Patel said in a written statement to parliament. Reuters