Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has made headlines in Taiwan, after it was revealed that one of the carriers inflight announcements referred to Taiwan as part of China. This caused a bit of a diplomatic spat, and the airline was forced to apologize, though lets see how China feels about this
Why on earth is it assumed that "China" refers to PRC in this context? The place the plane landed in is literally called Republic of China and it is governed by the rightful government of China. Just because the rest of China is occupied by PRC authorities doesn't change this.
I understand that this is a point of contention within Taiwan, and that the political party that has been in power since 2016 favours an independent Taiwanese identity.
It is utterly absurd that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities, while currently in power, seek to overturn the Constitution of the Republic of China.
They are just following big brother's lead by example.
"welcome back to Navajo nation, America.” “passengers who bring meat products into the country will be fined by the US government.”
Sano is correct . The Republic of China ( Taiwan ) has free elections and other freedoms which are not allowed by the China PRC . Everyone saw what they did to HK and Tien An Am square .
They forgot to teach you about My Lai in school.
And definitely never taught you about February 28.
Every government have propaganda on things they want to suppress.
Seems pretty avoidable: « Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Taipei. Failing to declare importation of food products may lead to fines from government authorities. »
Voila, avoided…
Why would they want to avoid that.
The best way to maintain propaganda over the puppet buffer state is to ensure conflict keeps on going. And what better way than having skirmishes like this.
Middle East seems to be a good proxy to do such schemes.
UAE needs those PATRIOT and THAAD resupply soon.
While out of favor Zenlensky won't be getting any resupply until they replace him with another popularity puppet who they can control.
This is a comment section of a travel blog but facts and truth remain indisputable. Opinions and facts are contradictory to and incompatible with one another. Taiwanese see their country as a sovereign state but in reality, there are more than 190 UN member countries do not recognize it as such. China has no beef when other countries' officials and businesses call Taiwan without including China as a whole country. But it will push back and penalize those who instigate the independence status. The Cairo Declaration agreed by Churchill, Roosevelt and Kai-shek affirmed Taiwan as part of China ( it is a shame that Mao did not rule China at the time).
The founding father of Taiwan and his KMT with US support lost the entire mainland China to Mao and his CCP on Oct. 1, 1949. Taiwan became democratic in 1900s. Russia has presidential election. Three decades ago, Egyptians in Kuwait mocked Mubarak for winning 97% votes. We have presidential and congressional elections bankrolled by cronies and plutocrats --- meaning the elections are not free and fair if they cost hundreds and tens of millions dollars, respectively. Violence, chaos, dysfunctionality, corruption, lawlessness, absence of trust and loyalty are the undeclared and unwritten description of US among its global allies. Taiwanese should take cue from historical patterns inflicted on US allies by US foreign policies under pre-text of national security and interests. While China, after centuries of civil wars and foreign exploitations, emphasizes absence of chaos, performance and results. I do not see any outrage and condemnation when Nixon handed the UN permanent member status and power to CCP and relinquished it from Taiwan in 1971. Hypocricy or ignorance of history?
Not too many hypocrite snowflakes back in the 1970s.
They are all under the propaganda against commies. And China was supposed to balance Russia and Vietnam, the propaganda enemy of brainwashed democracy.
ROC
Republic of CHINA
????
New YORK
You don't call that state as YORK or think it's fine to call it YORK.
Welcome to JFK airport, YORK?
Better yet. Albuquerque, MEXICO?
Well because there is MEXICO in New MEXICO.
Just like calling ROC as China
Ummm but PRC is people’s republic of China. ROC is republic of China. Hence both are China!
Your York analogy still doesn’t work. Nobody calls York “COY” — it’s just York. And nobody calls New York simply “York” or Albuquerque “Mexico,” because those places aren’t York or Mexico.
The PRC and ROC are fundamentally different from that analogy: “People’s Republic” and “Republic” are qualifiers placed before the exact same word: China. The names are literally People’s Republic of China and Republic of China.
So here’s the question your argument doesn’t answer: why is it acceptable to use “China” as shorthand for the PRC while insisting that the ROC cannot also be called China? If “China” is supposedly exclusive to the PRC, why does the PRC get to drop “People’s Republic of” while the ROC is expected to keep “Republic of” every time?
You can’t just declare that the qualifier makes one “China” while the other somehow isn’t. Both names contain China. The distinction between them comes from the words before China — PRC and ROC — not from one magically owning the word “China.”
And the ROC is literally the Republic of China. Historically, the ROC government regarded itself as the legitimate government of China, and that identity is still reflected in Taiwan’s own institutions today.
Look at Taiwan’s own names:
• China Airlines — Taiwan’s airline, not the PRC’s.
• China Post / Chunghwa Post — Taiwan’s postal service.
• Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) — Taiwan’s central bank literally retains “Republic of China” in its official name.
So when you say calling Taiwan “China” is somehow inherently wrong, you’re ignoring the ROC’s own identity and history. Calling Taiwan “China” should hardly be treated as an insult to the ROC — if anything, from the traditional ROC position, it should be a compliment, because you’re recognizing the “China” that the ROC itself historically claimed to represent.
You can argue that today, in common international usage, “China” usually means the PRC. Fine. But that is a convention, not some logical rule derived from your New York/Mexico analogy.
New York isn’t York. Albuquerque isn’t Mexico. But “Republic of China” and “People’s Republic of China” both actually contain the word China. That is the crucial difference your analogy completely misses.
Companies should face sanctions in the US if they refer to taiwan as china, cos it clearly isnt.
I can't imagine giving a about any of this. China will whine about this at every opportunity. ignore it.
From experience it's statistically skewed to one side.
Whether it's China, gender, or race cards.
We're trying to equally be snowflakes in an unequal world.
Would be interesting to see a comment from a native mandarin speaker who has actually heard the announcement. Mentioning the risk of being fined by the "Chinese" government when landing in a country with official name of Republic of China looks perfectly normal to me. Their flag carrier is China Air, not Taiwan Air.
I talked to a friend who was born and raised in Taiwan. She says that in Mandarin when they talk about their government the words they use would translate to "Republic of China government". So unless the announcement specifically mentioned "People's Republic of China", I don't see a problem. If they said "Republic of China", that was the official name of the country. If they just said "China", it's ambiguous but not wrong.
The way I see it, the Taiwanese are entitled to their own country. If they want to be called Taiwan, have an independent government and their own laws, who is a foreign nation to tell them they actually belong to them. These brands all know it's unethical, but the money's too good to pass up and that's exactly why they have to be shamed.