Following a protest from the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), Apple Inc has stopped referring to Taiwan as a province of China on its Web site.
Instead, Taiwan is now listed as a separate country along with more than 20 others ranging from Australia to the US.
A senior official at Apple conceded that the company committed an “error” and that it had been corrected.
FOUND BY EMPLOYEE
The mistake was first noticed by a Taiwanese-American employee of Apple who wrote to FAPA about it.
The employee found that Taiwan was listed as a province of China on the company’s “Jobs at Apple” Web site, which is accessible to the general public.
CHINESE ‘PROVINCE’
If an applicant clicked on “China” under “Country” on the Apple employment page, the drop-down menu provided five Chinese “provinces” to chose from: Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Taiwan.
“It is of course an incontestable reality that Taiwan is not a province of China,” FAPA president Bob Yang (楊英育) wrote to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.
SOVEREIGN COUNTRY
“Taiwan is a sovereign independent country with its own elected president, its own military and stock exchange,” he wrote.
“If American citizens travel to Taiwan, the Chinese embassy is unable to issue a visa to Taiwan,” Yang added.
“In light of the fact that several Apple products are manufactured in Taiwan itself, I ask that Apple correct its terminology in reference to Taiwan and stop referring to Taiwan as a province of China,” Yang wrote.
In a letter of reply to Yang, the senior Apple official wrote: “This is to confirm that the error in Apple’s job posting, listing Taiwan under the provinces of China, has been corrected. Thank you for bringing the matter to our attention.”
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