Companies have no leeway to skirt around one China: China Daily editorial

Three months have passed since China's civil aviation authority wrote to more than 40 international airlines asking them to remove from their websites information that refers Taiwan as an independent country.

Beijing's move did not come out of blue. It is in direct response to the increased push for the island's "independence" since Tsai Ing-wen and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party took office. The more she denies the 1992 consensus that agrees there is only one China, and Taiwan is a part of it, the more Beijing will react by actively asserting that the island is an inalienable part of the country.

So far most of the carriers that the Civil Aviation Administration of China wrote to have already complied with its instruction before the July 25 deadline, calling the island "Taiwan, China" or "Chinese Taipei". Although some of the late-doers are complying grudgingly. Some are reportedly using certain city names rather than referring to Taiwan as part of China.

Whether this will be enough remains to be seen. Given the stern warning issued by a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday that acknowledging there is only one China is something "nonnegotiable", it is hard to imagine that it will be business as usual for those who take the instruction lightly.

Even US operators such as Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, which had been dragging their feet on the matter, are making the required changes.

American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said in an email statement to Agence France Presse: "Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address China's request. Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate."

It is normal that enterprises should have to play by the rules in the countries where they operate.

Yet unfortunately Washington has tried to paint the Chinese move in a bad light, calling it an effort by Beijing to "impose Chinese political correctness on American companies and citizens", and describing it as "Orwellian nonsense".

Such an arrogant attitude has sent a wrong signal.

The White House forgets that it agreed to this political correctness as early as in 1972, when "the United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Straits maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China", as the Shanghai Communiqué states.

Thus Beijing's recent move is only restatement of a historical fact that all countries with normal relations with China must respect.