Google also in hot water

The big international players sometimes give the impression that they are competing for 1st prize in the China Internet kowtow contest. In imperial times, visitors to the Emperor had to prostrate themselves in front of the great man and press their foreheads to the floor three times to signify their complete subservience to the ultimate power.

Several reports, including this one from the BBC report on protests about Google's apparent insistence on towing the Zhongnanhai line on Taiwan as a renegade province. A search on Google Maps for the word Taiwan, reveals a map of the island and the phrase "Taiwan, Province on China". Hong Kong's South China Morning Post today reports "The search engine once revised the description after a protest from a pro-independence group, but changed it back just days later, apparently under pressure from the mainland".

As any publisher experienced in China will tell you, the Taiwan issue touches on the rawest of nerves in both the mainland and Taiwan. There are, however, generally-accepted alternatives which (while resented a bit on both sides) are deemed mutually acceptable for most media. "Taiwan", all by itself, is OK for all but the extremist and the sycophants. "The Republic of China" is not OK (in the mainland) while Taiwan Province offends many in Taiwan.

And make sure Taiwan appears on any maps you publish of China: my first visit to Beijing in 1985 was memorable for a two hour lecture from our publishing partners of the day on the one China issue because our cover artist (in a very stylised map of China - also a bad idea) had omitted the island. Much has changed in China over 20 years, but sensitivities on Taiwan have not. That doesn't mean, though, that we need to knuckle under to whatever we think Beijing might want us to do.