Mobile phone and tablet manufacturers have been asked to refer to the nation with its proper name in their built-in operating systems and applications, the National Communication Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
The caller ID on Huawei P30 and Nova 5T smartphones has been displaying the caller’s location as “Taiwan, China,” rather than “Taiwan,” since a security update to their operating systems, according to messages posted on a discussion forum on the Mobile 01 technology Web site.
In some Huawei Mate 20X smartphones, a list of warranty areas refers to Taiwan as a part of China, although the device’s caller ID still displays the caller’s location as “Taiwan,” the users said.
Photo: AP
The commission said it has asked the manufacturer to address the issue as soon as possible, as the designation does not faithfully reflect the reality and undermines the nation’s dignity.
The manufacturer has also been asked to be consistent in the name it uses to address the nation in its products, the commission added.
“We have started asking smartphone and tablet computer manufacturers to sign an affidavit when they apply for certification of their products, in which they need to pledge to accurately label the nation in the settings for the operating systems and built-in applications,” the commission said.
NCC acting spokesman Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said that certifications would be revoked if manufacturers were found to have changed the settings after obtaining certification and signing the affidavit, according to rules governing the inspections of telecommunication terminal equipment and controlled radio-frequency devices.
In other developments, Sanlih TV News was fined NT$200,000 for hindering the physical and mental health of children and youth after it on June 3 broadcast a news story about a boy who was forced by adults to express support for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) at a campaign rally, and broke into tears while refusing to do so.
The channel further used a video clip from an online news outlet for the story, the commission said.
Some viewers have filed complaints about the story, the commission said, adding that it forwarded the case to be deliberated at an independent content review committee.
A majority of the committee members agreed that the channel harmed the child a second time by airing footage of him losing control of his emotions after being forced to perform an act against his wishes, the commission said.
Sanlih TV News should not exploit the plight of minors for news stories, it added.
Committee members also found the channel responsible for broadcasting the footage, even though it cited another news source, the commission said, adding that the channel should not use footage of children to illustrate the news stories it aims to tell.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS