White House condemns China for 'coercing' airlines on Taiwan language

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Saturday harshly criticized China's efforts to require foreign airlines to change how they refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, labeling the effort "Orwellian nonsense."

In a statement, the White House said the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration sent a letter to 36 foreign air carriers, including a number of U.S. carriers, demanding changes.

The carriers were told to remove references on websites or in other material that suggests Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are part of countries independent from China, U.S. and airline officials said.

Taiwan is China's most sensitive territorial issue, with China considering the self-ruled, democratic island a wayward province. Hong Kong and Macau are former European colonies that are now part of China but run largely autonomously

 

"The United States strongly objects to China's attempts to compel private firms to use specific language of a political nature in their publicly available content," the White House said in its statement. "We call on China to stop threatening and coercing American carriers and citizens."

The White House said that President Donald Trump "will stand up for Americans resisting efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to impose Chinese political correctness on American companies and citizens. ... 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."

The flap comes on the heels of trade talks with China. On Friday, Trump tweeted that he would meet with U.S. trade officials after China meetings. "It is hard for China in that they have become very spoiled with U.S. trade wins! Trump wrote.

A spokesman for Airlines for America, a trade group representing United Airlines, American Airlines and other major carriers, said on Saturday, "We are continuing to work with U.S. government officials as we determine next steps."

American Airlines Group Inc confirmed earlier Saturday that it had received the demand.

In January, China demanded an apology from Delta Air Lines for listing Taiwan and Tibet as countries on its website.

Also in January China suspended Marriott International Inc's Chinese website for a week to punish the world's biggest hotel chain for listing Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as separate countries in a customer questionnaire.

The apparent intensification of efforts to police how foreign businesses refer to Chinese-claimed territories - even if only in pull-down web menus - underscores just how sensitive the issue of sovereignty has become in a China that is increasingly emboldened on the international stage.

China's aviation authority also said in January it would require all foreign airlines operating routes to China to conduct comprehensive investigations of their websites, apps and customer-related information and "strictly comply with China's laws and regulations to prevent a similar thing from happening."

In a statement in January, Delta apologized for making "an inadvertent error with no business or political intention," saying it recognized the seriousness of the issue and had taken steps to resolve it.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler)