China hits back after US blasts ‘Orwellian’ rule for airlines

Bloomberg

China isn’t backing down after the White House called an order for airlines to stop referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as countries “Orwellian nonsense.”
The foreign ministry in Beijing said that all three places “are indivisible parts of China.” Hong Kong and Macau answer to Beijing, despite having different currencies, separate financial systems and elected legislators, while Taiwan is a democracy that has resisted rule by China.
“Regardless of what the US will say or do, it will not change the fact that there is only one China in the world,” spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing, reiterating a statement. “We urge foreign companies to respect China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, respect Chinese laws and the feelings of the Chinese people. Those are the basics they need to do when they open and operate businesses in China.”
The spat comes shortly after a high-level US delegation returned from two days in Beijing with little to show for talks aimed at averting a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Taiwan has emerged as another potential flash point, with US President Donald Trump signing a law allowing high-level diplomatic visits there and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping launching military drills in the Taiwan Strait and warning that Beijing’s authority over the island was non-negotiable.
The White House statement shows that Trump might be taking a tougher line after companies from Marriott International Inc. to Qantas Airways Ltd. have scrambled recently to meet China’s demands regarding the territories or risk losing business. US airlines were among several that received letters from China’s Civil Aviation Administration.