Livid China asserts right over Taiwan as US allows diplomatic visits there

Spat comes shortly after high-level US delegation returned from two days in Beijing with little to show for talks aimed at averting a trade war between the world's two biggest economies

China isn’t 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 foreign ministry in Beijing said Monday that all three places “are indivisible parts of China.” Hong Kong and Macau answer to Beijing, despite having different currencies, separate financial systems and elected legislators, while Taiwan is a democracy that has resisted rule by the mainland.

“Regardless of what the US will say or do, it will not change the fact that there is only one China in the world,” spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing, reiterating a statement 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.”

The spat comes shortly after a high-level US delegation returned from two days in Beijing with little to show for talks aimed at averting a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Taiwan has emerged as another potential flash point, with US President Donald Trump signing a law allowing high-level diplomatic visits there and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping launching military drills in the Taiwan Strait and warning that Beijing’s authority over the island was non-negotiable.

The White House statement shows that Trump might be taking a tougher line after companies from Marriott International Inc to Qantas Airways have scrambled recently to meet China’s demands regarding the territories or risk losing business. US airlines were among several that received letters from China’s 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 Saturday in a statement.

“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.’’

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, whose Democratic Progressive Party supports independence from China, thanked the U.S. for the support. “We call on all businesses to resist #China’s efforts to mischaraterize #Taiwan,” Tsai said Sunday on Twitter.

— With assistance by Lulu Shen, Samson Ellis, Toluse Olorunnipa, and Kevin Hamlin