Taiwan Protests Apple Maps That Show Island As Province of China

itwbennett writes "Taiwan is demanding Apple revise its mapping software and remove a label that describes the island as a province of China, rather than as a sovereign state. The complaint was lodged after local media reports said that users on the island had noticed the change in Apple's latest iOS and Mac OS versions. 'The maps don't acknowledge Taiwan as its own nation. We voiced our disapproval, and hope Apple will make the change,' an official with Taiwan's foreign ministry said Wednesday. This isn't the first time such a mistake was made. Google also labeled Taiwan as a Chinese province in 2005."

Not a mistake

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a mistake. China's market is far more lucrative than Taiwan's for Apple, and since they have to choose which one to piss off....

Re:Province or nation?

[stewsters]

Well, there is a solution to this. Apple maps is used on a device with gps tracking, so when you are physically located in mainland China you can say that Taiwan is a province of China, and when you are in Taiwan you say that it's a separate nation. Problem solved, everyone happy except fishermen using the app. But get a real waterproof gps if you are on a boat.

Re:A Breakaway Province

[unixisc]

No, it isn't. Beijing doesn't control anything that goes on in Taiwan, much as they'd like to. Yeah, they used to make hostile noises in the past whenever Taiwan spoke of formally declaring independence, but it ultimately didn't amount to much. But Taiwan controls everything of its own, including its foreign & defense policies - not something that can be said about the province of any country

Re:Province or nation?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Facts aren't decided by politics. Can the Chinese government tell residents of Taiwan what to do? If not, then Taiwan is de facto independent.

Binary decision trees also tend to be of limited use in the real world: Does Beijing deliver the mail and fine you for traffic violations in Taiwan? No. Are there things that Taiwan could theoretically do; but never would because that would make China rage out? Quite possibly.

Re:And if they change it they will still be wrong

[neonKow]

Correction: nobody actually thinks that. It's just the official government policy to refer to it that way.

Re:And if they change it they will still be wrong

[Hardhead_7]

There's a difference between being wrong, and people thinking something is wrong. For instance, it doesn't matter how many people think Global Warming is a hoax - they're wrong.

Similarly, it doesn't matter if a billion customers think Taiwan is part of China. The real objective truth is Taiwan operates independently. The clue might be that the Taiwan Government is the one complaining.

Re:A Breakaway Province

[Luckyo]

You are wrong according to both Taiwanese and Chinese. Both view themselves as "China that has rights to controlling all of Chinese territory". I.e. Republic of China government that is located in Taiwan claims that entire mainland China is their territory and Taiwan is just one province.
People's Republic of China that is located on mainland has the exactly same claim. It's basically two different regimes that (mostly, discounting Mongolia issue) agree that China encompasses both Taiwan and mainland, but disagree on which government is legitimate one. This is because both claimed to be legitimate governments back in the days of civil war, and one side was simply pushed out of mainland and into Taiwan, but never finished off.

Even Taiwanese tend to forget this because official propaganda doesn't like to talk about this inconvenient truth. However you can check yourself both from history books, or even wikipedia and its sources.

Re:Isn't this what the Taiwanese believe as well?

[unixisc]

During the Cold War, there was a clear advantage - in the beginning, Beijing was allied to the Soviets, and later, even when they got divorced, they still were very independent of the US and ran against US interests all over - like support to North Korea, North Vietnam and so on. So it made sense for the US to still be wary of them, and treat them like an adversary, even though they were the China that the US recognized.

Now, the advantage of keeping Taiwan free is containing China. This is a country that's still expansionist, and has territorial disputes w/ most of its neighbors. Granted, the Taiwanese have the same views on things like Tibet, but if they were to ever take over Beijing, it would be easier to get them to allow places like Tibet to go free and not claim islands that are closer to Philippines.

Of course, if the world is gonna shift all its manufacturing to China, that ain't gonna happen. But it will be funny when China implodes, and there is a major shortage of products due to that