Beijing is clearly not amused on United Airlines for listing Taiwan and Hong Kong by their respective currencies in its bid to work over the country's regulation in identifying the said territories as part of China. On Thursday, the Chinese foreign ministry reiterates that no one should violate the "One China" principle regardless of any reason.
The Chicago, Illinois-headquartered airline company recently made rounds in the news when it decided to enable a functionality on their booking website which allows customers to list their location or place of destination via the name of Taiwanese currency, the New Taiwan Dollar, according to Business Insider.
United further take a step to include Hong Kong and the mainland China in the listing scheme whereby they are now called "Hong Kong Dollar" and "Chinese Yuan," respectively.
Meanwhile, other locations such as Indonesia, Australia, South Korea, and more others, were not identified by their currencies on the United Airlines site.
Beijing was quick to point out on the issue, considering the decision from United Airlines to adopt the naming scheme as something that goes against the recent efforts of the Xi Jinping administration to identify the aforementioned Chinese territories as part of whole China.
Citing a report from a state-run news outfit, Global Times, South China Morning Post said that what United did is a clear attempt to "fool Chinese" people.
In a press briefing which took place this week, Foreign Minister Hua Chunying reminded the media that there is only "one China" and that Taiwan, Hong Kong, and even the semi-autonomous Macau, are all part of it.
Hua emphasized this policy from Beijing as something that should be observed at all cost not only by foreign companies operating in China but also in the international community.
It is yet to be known as to when and why United Airlines put up this new listing option.
Background Incident
Earlier this year, the Chinese civil aviation authority issued a memorandum demanding 36 foreign airlines, including the United, to refrain from referencing places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau as individual countries on their websites and marketing campaigns.
In the particular case of United Airlines, the firm typically lists destinations in this format: Airport Name, followed by City, Country or City, Country.
A report from Yahoo indicated Taipei's rather grateful attitude to United Airlines for coming up with unusual ways to "differentiate" Taiwan from mainland China.
On paper, Beijing considers Taiwan as part of its territory and is still awaiting reunification.
Macau and Hong Kong, meanwhile, are separate administrative regions of China. In essence, the two places belong to China but each of them abides by an autonomous government and legal system.
