Source: South China Morning Post
Taiwan has condemned a Beijing effort to pressure foreign companies – including Nike, Apple and Amazon – to list the island as part of China, in what observers said was a fresh attempt to force Taipei to the negotiating table for unification talks.
A total of 66 international firms were singled out for “misidentifying” Taiwan on their websites, in an annual report on cyber rule of law in China published this week by the Social Science Academic Press in Beijing.
The report, which covered 500 top transnational companies based in 32 countries, including the US, Japan and Germany, also named 53 firms for “misidentifying” Hong Kong.
The 2018 Annual Report on Cyber Rule of Law called for the relevant authorities to punish the companies by either removing their licences or suspending their operations on the mainland if they refused to correct their mistakes.
The report said the companies had either deliberately violated or were not aware of the one-China principle, which it said was backed by international and domestic law, adding that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China must be protected.
The fresh effort to pressure international companies follows a call by Chinese President Xi Jinping for cross-strait unification talks based on the Hong Kong model of ‘one country, two systems’.
Xi Jinping urges Taiwan to follow Hong Kong model for unification
Alex Huang, Taiwan’s presidential spokesman, said on Thursday that Beijing’s actions could in no way remove Taiwan from the sight of the world.
The island, he said, had forged close links with the international community and was backed by countries which shared its values of democracy and freedom.
“Regardless of whether to use ‘one country, two systems’ to coerce Taiwan, or to resort by political and economic means to pressure international enterprises to change our title, what China has done would not only impact regional stability, but would also make China lose the world’s trust and respect,” Huang said.
“It would also serve to sabotage the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.”
Huang said the Taiwanese people would not give up their belief in freedom and democracy and bow to pressure from the mainland over its demands.
Washington – which recognises Beijing diplomatically instead of Taipei – came to the aid of its unofficial ally, telling Beijing to stop its coercion and resume a dialogue with Taiwan.
Amanda Mansour, spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan – Washington’s de facto embassy in Taipei – said last week that the US had a “deep and abiding interest in cross-strait peace and stability”.
“Any resolution of cross-strait differences must be peaceful and based on the will of the people on both sides,” she said.
Mansour’s comments followed a similar statement in support of Taiwan on Twitter by Garrett Marquis, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, on Monday.
The latest pressure from Beijing follows a demand, in mid-2018 from Chinese aviation authorities, that 44 international airlines stop referring to Taipei as being located in Taiwan and instead update their websites to say that Taipei was part of China.
