(16 Jan 2018) The Taiwan Foreign Ministry condemned China on Tuesday for forcing foreign companies to change Taiwan's title from a country to a Chinese region on their websites.
Ministry spokesman Andrew Lee said at a news conference in Taipei that China's "rude and unreasonable" actions can't change the fact that Taiwan is a sovereign country.
Lee said the ministry has asked its missions overseas to contact the companies and express Taiwan's stern position on the matter and denounce Beijing's arbitrary acts.
Last Friday, China's regulators ordered the Marriott hotel chain to close its China-based website and app for one week after criticising the company for referring to Tibet and self-ruled Taiwan as countries in a customer survey.
The CEO of Marriott International Inc., Arne Sorenson, said in a statement the company "respects and supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China."
Taiwan's presidential office spokesperson Alex Hunag said at a news briefing that the Taiwanese people adamantly believe in democracy and freedom and that fact won't change even if Taiwan's title is erased from the internet.
Chinese regulators also demanded apology from fashion brand Zara, as well as other foreign companies such as Delta Air Lines and medical device maker Medtronic for calling Taiwan a country on their websites in a fresh show of Beijing's acute sensitivity about the self-ruled island.
Zara, Delta and Medtronic were ordered to remove the "illegal content" and make public apologies, airline and internet regulators said.
Other airlines were ordered to check their own websites.
Zara and Medtronic were "required to conduct a comprehensive self-examination," the Shanghai Cyberspace Authority said.
Taiwan and the mainland split in 1949 after a civil war but the communist Beijing government claims the island as its territory.
It regularly lashes out at publishers of books, maps or other materials that call the island a country.
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