Airlines caving to China's demands despite White House protest

[DaveReidUK]

"SHANGHAI (AP) — Global airlines are obeying Beijing's demands to refer to Taiwan explicitly as a part of China, despite the White House's call this month to stand firm against such "Orwellian nonsense." The Associated Press found 20 carriers, including Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa, that now refer to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers Chinese territory, as a part of China on their global websites.

There are just three days left for dozens of foreign airlines to decide whether to comply with Beijing's orders, or face consequences that could cripple their China business, including legal sanctions. Many have already sided with Beijing.

The spread of "Taiwan, China" on the drop-down menus and maps of airline websites represents another victory for China's President Xi Jinping and his ruling Communist Party's nationalistic effort to force foreign companies to conform to their geopolitical vision, even in operations outside of China. Critics say China's incremental push to leverage its economic power to forge new international norms — in this case regarding Taiwan's status — creates worrying precedents."

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2018/05/22/china-airlines-demand-taiwan-orwellian/631815002/

[golf yankee one one]

But isn't China's approach preferable to that of pretty much any great power in history, which always involved ' young men dying'

[inOban]

After all from 1949 until Nixon, the USA pretended that Taiwan was the government of China and Taiwan held the UN and security council seats.

[Heathrow Harry]

But both Taiwan and Beijing insist there is only one China.....

[DaveReidUK]

It's amusing to see the contortions that ICAO (which, as a UN agency, can't officially recognise Taiwan) has to go through when assigning 24-bit addresses, airline identifiers, etc.