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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."
Maybe if the U.S. Megacorps weren't hiring so many chinese this wouldn't be happening.
Apple is gay! Fuck you iTards!
Not sent from a FagPhone
Chinese in southeast Asia.
stuff that matters
hmmm... can't remember what new cite had that tagline.
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....
The mistake is more important than one may think at first, because Taiwan is one of the places the navigator will take you through in the path from your home to the local grocery store.
but apple maps will probably show it as second post.
If the map says Taiwan (ROC) is a nation, that will offend mainland China (PRC). If the map says Taiwan is a province of PRC, that offends Taiwan.
Really, they're screwed either way.
At $work, we are mandated to call ROC a "region". That's as accurate as we can go without offending anyone.
Is what Taiwan is. Taiwan has no recognition as a sovereign state by the UN or by any other country. You can mark it as disputed but it probably is correct to say it is a province of China.
Apple being Apple?
Because the PRC has a billion potential customers who think Taiwan is a province of mainland China.
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"We're preparing for the future. Because you ARE going to end up belonging to china.
And we want to suck up to china as much as possible now. So we can do business with them now and in the future."
Reality check guys... The next century belongs to china. We'd best get used to it folks.
Because there aint fuckall we could do to stop it. Economically or militarily.
Go back two or three decades and make a bunch of different choices.
But until time travel is a thing. Nope. Can't stop it now.
You young kids under 20. You want some long term career advice? Learn to read/write/speak chinese.
Taiwan is demanding Apple revise its map data
FTFY. There is a difference between data and software and we should understand that.
Both the government of the People's Republic of China (which controls the mainland) and the government of the Republic of China (which controls Taiwan) believe that Taiwan is a part of China. The two just disagree about who China's rightful government is. I realize that over the past 60 years Taiwan has grown more and more self-contained and has become a de facto state independent of China, but in theory there's nothing either side should object to in portraying Taiwan as part of China.
It's complicated.. basically it is de facto a nation, but it is not necessarily a nation de jure. But if you want one of the most likely kick-off points for World War III it is the issue of Taiwanese independence..
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And Taiwan doesn't.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I don't think this is a "mistake." Taiwan's status is an open question and Apple is probably choosing whichever side will benefit them more. Where's their bigger customer base, the island or the mainland?
Liberty in your lifetime
Maybe if the Chinese weren't buying all the U.S. Megacorps (and everything else in the U.S.), this wouldn't be happening.
FTFY
[citation needed]
It says "China's Taiwan Province" according to Google Translate, in that order (English possessive added). So, either Apple needs to change that, or rename Canada a US territory.
.. and return ownership to it's rightful owners:
the Dutch, of course.
There is only one China, and its capital is Taipai.
I suggest reading about the Treaty of San Francisco, Treaty of Taipei, and the Treaty of Shimonoseki before commenting about the Taiwan / PROC dispute...
The current status of Taiwan probably most similar to that of Germany. Where Germany was divided up into 4 zones after the war (US, UK, France, Russia), Taiwan is apparently effectively a US occupied zone until its fate is determined. It was recognized as an occupied territory of Japan before/during the war, but required that Japan relinquish control of Taiwan (and other territories acquired before the war) as a penalty for pre-war territorial aggressions. However, the treaty never specified to which government it was to go to (mainly because of the civil war between the ROC and the PROC which happened at the end of WWII).
The Treaty of Taipei (a separate peace treaty between Japan and the ROC, since abrogated by Japan when they recognized the PROC government), specifically ceded Taiwan to the ROC government. It's sort of a title to Taiwan that the ROC has waived around in the past, but it is unclear how the PROC ultimately winning the civil war affected the status of this document.
The US is pretty much in a conundrum. It could probably legally cede Taiwan to the PROC under the theory promulgated by the Treaty of San Francisco (give the island back to the country had it before Japan took it, this is what the UK wanted to do), or they can do nothing and claim that this is an internal issue between the ROC and PROC governments (I believe this is the continuing official US stance since the treaty), or they might twist the treaty wording and assert that Taiwan has the right to self-determination (which is of course what the US wants to do, but is opposed by the PROC and probably is too far a twist from a legal sense).
Originally, the US was sitting on its treaty status over Taiwan as part of a greater anti-communist sphere-of-influence policy. Now, it is probably merely attempting to get better terms for a PROC takeover by sitting on their hands until they get a deal that Taiwan is okay with. This has basically stalled because Taiwan doesn't appear that it would be happy with any PROC takeover (however, they are no-doubt looking at the Hong Kong 2-system situation with great interest).
"Taiwan, Province of China" is the official name used by the United Nations: http://www.unece.org/cefact/locode/service/location.html
Other companies also use this same name, such as ebay.
Just add a setting to the preferences menu:
Show Taiwan as: (x) independent; ( ) part of China
They could also include other regions such as Quebec, Catalonia, Scotland, Cyprus, Texas... the possibilities are endless!
What does Apple now use - Google Maps or OpenStreet Maps or something else? They might as well get Nokia's HERE, since that will be separate from Lumia once the Microsoft deal comes through
I have a simple solution to this problem.
Just stop showing national borders entirely. They matter less and less in the modern world, and if the increasingly impotent old-guard of national governments wants to pretend they still have relevance, let them make their own smartphones showing whatever stupid place-names they want. Within 50 years, country names will amount to a historical curiosity.
Of course, personally, I would recommend taking the most antagonistic approach possible. Based on the GPS reading, show it as part of China while in Taiwan, as its own country while in China, and just black it out and write "don't go here until these clowns can figure out their own name" for the rest of the world.
Modded down in like ten minutes?
PSA: Don't make jokes about Norway until its the middle of the night there. Sheesh.
But Taiwan controls everything of its own, including its foreign & defense policies - not something that can be said about the province of any country
You obviously have not been to the Canadian province of Quebec. ;-)
In China, the maps should show Taiwan as a province of China.
In the rest of the civilized world, including Taiwan, the maps should show Taiwan as its own entity.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
With all of the issues Apple has had over their map software, I have to wonder if they're starting to regret trying to reinvent the wheel just to modestly distance themselves from Google.
That's some interesting history, but it sounds like southwest Asia where imperial powers carved up nations without regard to the people living there. Self-determination is some silly hippie idea.
So it's a good thing Taiwan has a flag.
Q: Has the Taiwanese government declared that Taiwan is an independant state?
A: No.
Until they do, they are a province of China. This isn't a troll, this is basic logic.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
China is the next big market for everyone to go after. Companies will want to please China, not Taiwan. Surely they can figure that one out.
Really?
This hardly surprising and doesn't just apply to China/Taiwan versions. Apple's Clock app in iOS 7, U.S. edition has a long list of cities with their respective countries. There are only two exceptions: the capital of Taiwan and Jerusalem have no country given. I know. I waded through the entire list a few weeks ago.
That is not a mistake nor is the failure to include cities in Tibet with over a million in population. Tibet's occupation by China is fiercely resented by Tibetans. Including the city would force Apple to choose between China and Tibet. That it refuses to do.
There are other obvious examples of political cowardice. The Falkland Islands, with thousands of people and in a time zone of their own, aren't included, but research sites in Antarctica whose winter populations are around a dozen are included. Figure that one out. It is downright weird.
In short, any time there's a nasty, dictatorial regime that has a POV, Apple cowers and goes along. But notice that they do not do the same for democratic societies such as Taiwan, Israel or the Falklands. The reason is all too obvious. Those countries may complain, but they're not going to shut down the sale of Apple products. The dictatorships might. In Cupertino, money rules.
Someone once noted that "The problem with socialism is socialism. The problem with capitalism is capitalists." This is a great illustration of that. Apple may claim to support democracy and freedom, but when their bottom-line profitability is threatened, they quickly cow down and submit. You could actually come up with a fairly good Freedom Index by just looking at corporate policies. If global corporations pander to these madnesses, the country is not free.
And yes, whoever compiled the list must live overseas and must be more than a little stupid. U.S. cities are listed without their states, including some names that are in multiple states. No one who lives here would do that.
Compounding that stupidity, there are U.S. states with millions of people that include large cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands but not a single of those cities are listed. Since Daylight Savings is determined at the state level, choosing a city in another state can lead to mistakes.
And that's in a list that includes mere U.S. towns (without states) that are so small, I've never heard of them. For instance, there's a "Beulah, USA." If that's the Beulah in North Dakota, it has about 3100 people. If it's the one in Michigan, it has about 350. But there's no "Birmingham, USA" meaning the one in Alabama with over 200,000 people and in a metropolitan area with about 1.1 million people.
In short, Apple's city lists are an astonishing blend of knowing cowardice and utter stupidity. At best, we can assume that no one in Apple Quality Control looks at these lists.
England, Scotland & Wales were originally 3 different countries, which united some point in time.
Great Britain = England + Scotland + Wales
United Kingdom = Great Britain + Northern Ireland
British Isles = Great Britain + Ireland OR England + Scotland + Wales + Ireland
Britain (w/o the 'Great') is variably used in place of either Great Britain or the UK, and worse, sometimes merely England. There are some more complications, like Wales was early on annexed to even England, and wasn't recognized as separate, and isn't even represented on the Union Jack. To complicate things further, there are international sporting events where England & Scotland field rival teams.