China is not backing down after the White House called an order for airlines to stop referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as countries “Orwellian nonsense.”
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that all three places “are indivisible parts of China.”
“Regardless of what the US will say or do, it will not change the fact that there is only one China in the world,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) told a regular briefing, reiterating a statement on Sunday.
“We urge foreign companies to respect China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, respect Chinese laws and the feelings of the Chinese people. Those are the basics they need to do when they open and operate businesses in China,” Geng said.
The White House statement shows that Trump might be taking a tougher line after companies from Marriott International to Qantas Airways have scrambled to meet China’s demands regarding the territories or risk losing business.
US airlines were among several that received letters from the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration calling for strict guidelines for any references to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, according to the White House.
“This is Orwellian nonsense and part of a growing trend by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its political views on American citizens and private companies,’’ White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Saturday.
“China’s internal Internet repression is world-famous,’’ she added. “China’s efforts to export its censorship and political correctness to Americans and the rest of the free world will be resisted.’’
She said that US President Donald Trump’s administration is calling on China “to stop threatening and coercing American carriers and citizens.”
Australian carrier Qantas was among the airlines told to change how they refer to Taiwan, prompting comments from Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop that any such pressure was inappropriate.
“The terms that private companies choose to list destinations are a matter for them,” Bishop said in comments provided by her office. “There should be no pressure from governments, whether ours or others, that threatens the ordinary operations of business.”
Bishop said she hoped the current understanding with China could continue and that her department would continue to liaise closely with Qantas.
It was not clear what China had demanded Qantas do, or what the penalties for non-compliance might be.
As China leverages the power of its massive domestic market to bend foreign companies to its political will, its retribution has sometimes targeted those firms’ online presence.
Regulators recently ordered Marriott to close its China-based Web site and app for one week after criticizing the company for referring to Tibet and Taiwan as countries in a customer survey.
Marriot also fired a low-level social media employee based in Omaha, Nebraska, after he accidentally liked a tweet that offended Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported in March.
Roy Jones was fired on Jan. 14 for liking a tweet from the Marriott Rewards official twitter account, a post from a Tibetan separatist group that praised Marriott for calling Tibet a country in its online survey.
The Marriott Rewards Twitter account issued a response two days later apologizing for its actions after being forced to do so by the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, but the company still had to close its Web site and app account for a week, media reports said.
Additional reporting by AP
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia