skybluesea

So AC may just be ahead of everyone else, as for those of you who think Beijing is pretending here, this issue will NOT disappear anytime soon.

China rejects US talks over airlines' 'One China' policy
Published on Thursday, June 28, 2018

China has knocked back a US request to discuss the 'One China' policy on how US airlines list Taiwan's status on their websites.

China is standing firm in its non-negotiable stance to force all airlines to refer to Taiwan as Chinese territory, which will only fray bilateral relationships further amid a growing trade dispute.

Most global airlines have adhered to China's demands so far but US airlines are fearful of riling their own government over the issue.

US carriers including Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have received extensions but have been silent on the matter by letting the two superpowers duke it out.

According to a US government source it has now escalated to 'a foreign policy issue,' Reuters reports.

A State Department official confirmed China had rejected a request to discuss the matter.

US airlines should not be forced to comply with this order. We have called on China to stop threatening and coercing American companies and citizens," the official said.

After the US described the demand as 'Orwellian nonsense,' China's foreign ministry hit back by saying it will not budge.

"No matter what the United States says, it cannot change the objective fact that there is only one China in the world and that Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are indivisible parts of Chinese territory."

Delta's CEO, Ed Bastian is painfully aware his and other US carriers are virtually powerless as pawns stuck in the middle of a major geopolitical fight.

"We're working with the US authorities on the topic and we'll stay close to our US government," Bastian said

China has not made clear what action it could take if the airlines don't comply although it did impose a 'my way or the highway' stance with the world's largest hotel group.

Earlier this year it shut down Marriott International's Chinese website until it changed its listing of Taiwan, with CEO Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson forced to make an apology.

bocastephen

The issue may not disappear, but unlike Trudeau's lack of a backbone and his continued misguided relationship with China, Trump may very well instruct or allow US carriers to ignore the request and force the issue to the extent that China takes action against US carriers, so he can do likewise with Chinese carriers flying to the USA. This will potentially get packaged into the overall trade war dispute and just give him more ammunition to play with.

Keep in mind that while Marriott initially complied with the request and Sorenson made that ridiculous, ignorant, wailing, tear-filled embarrassment of a response that made him look like a complete fool, the current Marriott and Starwood websites and apps clearly show Taipei as being in Taiwan, and there is no mention of Taiwan being part of China - meaning, everything is back to how it was before, and potentially due to the very uncomfortable phone call I, and probably other agents and vendors, had with Marriott sales management after this fiasco with us threatening them to either undo the change or we and are clients would cancel an extensive amount of business. Message delivered, problem solved. Taiwan is Taiwan, China is China.

skybluesea

Most interesting and thanks for your insight...

tracon

Now the American carriers are changing their references to Taiwan.

US airlines to change how they refer to Taiwan | Aeropolitics content from ATWOnline

Four US international airlines are reportedly about to change how they refer to Taiwan.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines reportedly have decided to make the change after close coordination with the US State Department.

songsc

Bolding mine. I really like the wording here. So, nothing has changed?

m.y

You can go check their websites right now. AA, DL, UA all removed country from Taiwanese airports. DL and AA also removed country from Chinese airports as well.

bocastephen

While extremely disappointing, note that unlike Air Canada, the US airlines are not referring to Taiwan as part of China - the only thing they conceded to do is to remove "Taiwan" from the city name - in fact, United removed the country names from all disputed cities, which included removing "CN" from Hong Kong, which sort of establishes the status it should have - as an independent city-state. Everyone already knows Taipei is a city in independent Taiwan, so this really fools no one with a functioning brain.

It's disappointing, but in way, the carriers did not give China what they really wanted, but took away the only thing China could have used to start an air war with US carriers blocked from China, and Chinese carriers blocked from the USA - although this is really what should have happened.

hkskyline

JULY 26, 2018

U.S. airlines' changes to Taiwan references 'incomplete', China says

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Forty of 44 international airlines have amended their website references to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, China’s civil aviation regulator said on Thursday, adding that measures taken by some U.S. airlines were still incomplete.

​​​​​​​https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1KG0W4

bocastephen

The US airlines have made China look like a fool - this "Zero China" policy meets the terms of their silly "order", and now as a pie in the face move, takes China away from every disputed city or territory from Taiwan to Tibet. The changes as-is meet the conditions that were set, and if China doesn't like the result, too bad. At this point, almost everyone is laughing, and the laughter is directed squarely at Beijing.

hkskyline

The end result will be the US airlines will capitulate like all the other airlines in the edict that have already complied. What they have done clearly affirms Taiwan doesn't exist as a country name, just that all the Greater China cities won't have a country association either. Seems a good passive solution to adhere to the One China Policy. Kudos to the State Department for this.

bocastephen

Your interpretation of what the US airlines did is flawed. Your kudos to the 'State Department' are misplaced - what was done was a backhanded middle finger salute to your Dear Leader Xi. Whether it stands as-is or starts a new fight remains to be seen, but rest assured this was a calculated response that was designed to comply with the original demand while simultaneously mouthing something obscene in China's direction, and you should certainly realize this by the removal of "China" from every disputed territory, including locations that were showing China-CN for years, like Hong Kong, as well as refusing to place "China-CN" with Taipei or the other Taiwanese airports.

DrunkCargo

Fuddle duddle!

eigenvector

From United.com:


'Fuddle duddle' indeed. As I wrote earlier, I don't AC for capitulating quickly, but the response from the US big 3 definitely gave me a chuckle and I'll be happy to fly to "Beijing, ???" on their planes in the future.

hkskyline

You are over-interpreting this. I doubt passengers will suddenly think Beijing and Shanghai are not in China if the country label disappears. At least I hope the passenger won't be so ignorant LOL.

The angriest ones out of all this would be the Taiwan pro-independence camp. They lose their name recognition on these websites regardless.

These US carriers have actually applied for an extension to comply, so the story isn't over yet, and I think they're aware there will be some back and forth over this.

1353513636

I wonder what China will come up with next. In January, China got mad at DL for listing Taiwan as a country so they changed their website so it said Country/Region instead of Country. But China wasn't satisfied so they said if Taiwan appeared on the website it needed to say Taiwan, China or Taiwan, province of China. Now it seems they aren't satisfied with this recent move to just remove the country from all cities in greater China (I don't think they meant to embarrass China by removing the country from places like Taiwan and Tibet but rather tried to be neutral in saying that we're not going to take a stance on whether these places are 1 country or not so they will all have no country listed next to them....Beijing and Shanghai have also gone countryless on DL and UA's websites). Or maybe China is just unhappy that Taiwan appears on a few award charts not as "Taiwan, China".

Notably, Guam also appears on award charts as just Guam, and DL's website lists Edinburgh, Scotland.