ISMAEL ARANA
Hong Kong
16 MAY. 2018
(read original text)
Two employees work in a GAP store in Hong Kong. REUTERS
If for Mercedes-Benz it was quoting the Dalai Lama in an Instagram post and for the Marriott hotel chain it was referring to Tibet and Taiwan as independent countries in a survey of its customers, The mistake that has put the Gap textile company in the spotlight of Chinese consumers has been putting on sale some t-shirts with a map of China that some considered incomplete, something that has led the American firm to apologize and withdraw that product immediately to avoid greater evils..
"Gap Inc. respects China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We have learned that a Gap brand T-shirt sold in some foreign markets did not reflect the correct map of China. Nos disculpamos sinceramente por este error involuntario", The company said in a statement published on Monday on its Weibo account., Chinese Twitter.
This act of public contrition came after a user of the microblogging service posted a photograph of the garment in question in a store in Canada saying that several territories claimed by China, including southern Tibet, Taiwan Island and the South China Sea, had been omitted, which generated hundreds of complaints from Chinese consumers.
During the last months, China has not hesitated to pull the ears of those foreign companies that, one way or another, contravene the position of the communist government in its territorial disputes.
Their efforts to control the terminology of foreign firms are particularly intense as soon as they detect the slightest hint of possible support for an independent Taiwan., a self-governed island that Beijing considers an inseparable part of its territory. And it is difficult to ignore the dire consequences that not dancing to the tune that Beijing sets can have for companies with aspirations in one of the sweetest markets in the world..
In January, The country's regulators ordered Marriott to close its website and mobile app for a week for referring to Tibet, Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan as independent countries in a survey, prompting calls to boycott the hotel chain. Immediately afterwards, Marriott apologized, stating that it does not support any separatist movement and deleted the questionnaire. Encouraged by that success, Chinese netizens began to scour the network in search of new offenders.
Delta Airlines and Zara were their next targets - both listed Taiwan and Tibet as countries on their websites., which led the two to apologize and update the information contained in their domains..
Another such episode took place earlier this month, when the Chinese government explicitly asked 36 airlines - some of them based in the United States- to purge their web pages to remove any reference to Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan as independent countries. On this occasion, The White House took sides and issued a harsh statement criticizing the request. "Este es un sinsentido orwelliano y parte de una tendencia creciente del Partido Comunista chino de imponer sus puntos de vista políticos sobre los ciudadanos estadounidenses y las empresas privadas.
Los esfuerzos de China por exportar su censura y corrección política a los estadounidenses y al resto del mundo libre serán resistidos", the text assured. But far from taking a step back, The Chinese government responded by telling foreign companies that obeying official Chinese demands on how to refer to these territories is the price to pay for doing business in China.. "(The companies) They must respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, respetar las leyes chinas y respetar los sentimientos nacionales del pueblo chino", the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs specified a day later, Geng Shuang.
For now, American Airlines y United Airlines, two of the 36 companies that were reprimanded, They have refused to comply with Beijing's request. Given this situation, It is worth wondering how the Asian giant will react, whose Civil Aviation Administration has already threatened to enact administrative sanctions against airlines that do not comply. There is also the potential for calls to boycott these companies., as was already done with the South Korean company Lotte for providing the land for the installation of a missile defense system that Beijing did not want to see installed in the neighboring country..
Taking into account that it is expected that for 2022 China surpasses the United States as the world's largest air travel market, There are analysts who estimate that the consequences could be devastating for those who dare to continue with their challenge..
