US Airlines Cave To China On Taiwan
China has been pretty busy this year exerting leverage on US-based travel brands. China has a very specific way they believe business should refer to them as well as other territories or regions they believe are under their control.
Earlier this year, Marriott had their website shut down in China. Their offense? Marriott hired a third-party survey company that listed Taiwan as a separate country from China. The website was only shut down for a week but I imagine there were significant financial consequences with no website to book in the world’s most populous country. Shortly thereafter, Marriott was reported to be removing books from hotel rooms that might offend China.
Hotels weren’t the only ones to get in on the action. China demanded an apology from Delta for a similar offense. Not long after, China demanded that all airlines worldwide comply with their demands. This included how to refer to countries like Taiwan on their websites. China was very specific, going so far as to say that the likes of Taiwan should be displayed in the same color as China on any maps.
Would US-Based Airlines Comply?
I was a guest on the Dots, Lines & Destinations podcast recently and this was one of the topics we covered. At the time, some of the US airlines had said they were deferring to the US government to deal with China on the issue. The US government made some public comments about how they thought China’s demands were nonsense. That was the only news I saw about the issue for a few weeks.
Now, Skift is reporting that US airlines will start complying with China’s demands shortly. This is not at all shocking to me. I said this was where I expected things to end up. Maybe in a different political climate, the two countries (US and China) would deal with this issue at the diplomatic level. But, at the point where these publicly-held companies are threatened with significant financial losses, deferring to the government or personal opinion take a backseat to a duty to shareholders.
I looked at a few major airline’s websites to see how “compliance” was going. American Airlines seems to have removed the Taiwan tag from their map. Delta and United still show a reference to Taiwan as opposed to “China Taiwan”.
The Final Two Pennies
I suspect this will be a non-issue shortly. There’s no indication of an escalation by the US with China on this point. Still, it’s bizarre to watch some of the most valuable companies in the world being used as political pawns.
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Taiwan is the Republic of China, not the People’s Republic of China. So far, so good. But the “same color” bit is more offensive, since it implies “One China.” I’d like the American people to stop flying airlines that take dictates from China. That would hurt their pocketbooks more than any phony money inflated from PRC
Ed, I think China is looking for something more than the implication this is “One China”.
With the current US administrations’ stance on ‘bending over backwards to accommodate dictators”, is this any surprise? To hell with historical friends, and jump into bed with dictators instead. I think US companies should do as they wish to do versus what a dictator (orange or not) tells them what to do for political gain.
CMC, US companies appear to be doing exactly what they wish. Maybe individuals at these companies don’t want to comply. But, I’m guessing shareholders overall want financial results.
I beg to disagree. DL, UA, and AA did remove “Taiwan” so it is now “TPE – Taipei, “. Funny that the comma is still there. The People’s Republic of China will be aggressive and not even accept that. That is too much. The airlines should push back with a useful informational message like this:
TPE-Taipei, China. Use of word “China” is required by the government of the People’s Republic of China. However, immigration requirements, customs requirements, currency, and local government administration is that of the Republic of China on Taiwan. Use of the term “Republic of China” does not imply recognition of the government but is used for practical and informative purposes.
or even
TPE – Taipei. Claimed by the People’s Republic of China. Administered by the Republic of China on Taiwan, also known as Taiwan.
This bullying is crazy. I don’t like it when Red China tries to confuse people. I don’t really give a hoot about Taiwan but don’t like bullying.
All three removed “Taiwan” from the airport names in the search/pick lists. But they also didn’t call it “Taiwan – China” (or similar) which is really what the PRC authorities want. There is a very, very good chance that all four affected US carriers are going to find that their “compromise” solution on Taiwan was, ultimately, insufficient.
Yeah, it seems like a partial effort at best. I’ll be curious to see how far PRC pushes this.
But Taiwan is part of China, just ask Kyle Stewart on the boarding area!
Sam, ROFL!