Japan's airlines gave in to 'Orwellian' demands from China — but how they did it could provide a blueprint for foreign companies everywhere

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

• Japan's airlines recently bowed to political pressure from China to change how they describe Taiwan.
• But Japan Airlines and ANA only changed the descriptions on their Chinese-language sites, not their sites in Japanese, English, or other languages.
• This split approach could provide a roadmap for other foreign companies struggling to deal the threat of being blocked from the Chinese market for references to Taiwan.

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Japan's major airlines bowed to political pressure from China earlier this month, but how they did so could provide a roadmap for other foreign companies.

Earlier this year Beijing began demanding that airlines stop listing self-ruled Taiwan as a country, and instead describe it as a province of China, which frequently tries to assert its claim to the island on the global stage. The incident involved letters sent to 44 foreign airlines. Governments got involved, and the White House even released a statement slamming the demand as "Orwellian nonsense."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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