Australia’s biggest airline says it’s changing how it describes Taiwan on its website after pressure from China.
Australia’s biggest airline says it’s changing how it describes Taiwan on its website after pressure from China.
China’s aviation regulator recently requested that Qantas ( QABSY) and dozens of other international airlines alter their websites to refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau as Chinese territories.
The demand has drawn criticism from the governments of the United States, Taiwan — and now Australia.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told reporters in Sydney on Monday that his company is complying with Beijing’s request.
„Our intention is to meet the requirements. It’s just taking time to get there,“ he said.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China gave airlines a May 25 deadline to meet its demand for changing their websites. It said last month that of the 44 foreign airlines to which it sent letters, 18 have „corrected“ their websites — while 26 others requested an extension.
Qantas said in a statement Tuesday that it still has „some complexity to work through“ in terms of „the IT and technology that underpins our websites.“
The Chinese government in Beijing considers self-governed Taiwan to be an integral part of its territory under what it calls the ‚one China‘ principle — and it comes down hard on any suggestions to the contrary.
