Google Maps and Taiwan Province
Oct.05, 2005 in Uncategorized
Google says Taiwan is a province of China, and everyone is up in arms. This is a common problem. A few weeks again Amtrak did the same thing, and had to apologize. Two weeks ago I looked up the inquiry form for Democrats Abroad, thinking to join, but they also listed “Taiwan, Province of China” on their “country” form, so I sent them a polite letter asking them to change it to “Taiwan”. I also notified FAPA….there’s a lot of work to be done here…and clearly, next time I’ll have to ask the TSU.
UPDATE: Angry Chinese Blogger posts a long and excellent analysis of the issue.
[Taiwan]
TAIWAN BLOG FEED
October 5th, 2005 at 5:01 am
Whoa. Tough call there for us wild-eyed Taidu types. How the heck do you boycott Google?
October 5th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
So Google called Taiwan a province of China. So what? Every single government in the world does that as well, right?
It’s not like Google can switch it now. If they drop the “province of China” part now, then they’ll get ten times a bigger earful from mainland Chinese people who’ll cry that Google has hurt their national pride. On the other hand, if they keep it, 90% of Taiwanese people will just sigh and move on with their lives.
October 6th, 2005 at 2:45 am
I switched my yahoo profile from Taiwan, R.O.C. to Taiwan, Province of China several years ago, sort of a joke.
I guess I am a trend setter.
October 10th, 2005 at 7:48 am
I work with Democrats Abroad in Korea, and the head officed called us “Democrats Abroad South Korea” and put us in alphabetical order under S, right after South Africa. They were responsive when I corrected that; I think they will be about your point about Taiwan. Unfortunately, a lot of people outside Asia (pretty much outside Taiwan) are ignorant of the issue.