S. Africa Reclassifies Chinese as 'Black'

South Africa's high court has decided Chinese people should be reclassified as black, the London Times reports. The country's 20,000 citizens of Chinese origin had complained that they were left out of programs aimed at reversing inequalities created under apartheid, despite having been discriminated against under white rule. A controversial policy forces large companies to give some of their equity to black-run entities.

Chinese South Africans had been classified as "colored" under apartheid laws—which counted Japanese people as "honorary whites." Leaders of the country's Chinese community welcomed the decision as an end to a "second round of unfair discrimination," which had left them in a legal limbo since the end of apartheid in 1994. (More South Africa stories.)