Swedish Tax Agency pisses off Taiwan by reclassifying it as a ‘province of China’
Taiwan’s foreign affairs ministry has lodged a protest against the change, calling it ‘unacceptable’
Taiwan is currently less than pleased with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for changing the name of Taiwan on its website from the “Republic of China (Taiwan)” to “Taiwan, Province of China.”
Last week, the government agency which is responsible for national tax collection and population registration in Sweden, announced the change, explaining that it was made in order to comply with standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Taiwan evidently is not buying that excuse with its foreign affairs ministry lodging a protest against the change which it calls “unacceptable.”
According to Taiwan News, ministry spokesman Andrew Lee told Taiwan’s Central News Agency that after learning about the name change on Saturday, the ministry had contacted Sweden representative office in Taipei to express to Stockholm that the move was “unacceptable to the government and people of Taiwan” and that the original name should be restored immediately to “safeguard the national dignity and rights of the Taiwanese people.”
Like most countries, Sweden does not officially recognize Taiwan, though it does keep a “non-diplomatic” representative office in Taipei.
The way that Taiwan is referred to on websites suddenly became a major international issue in January after Marriott was found to have listed Taiwan, along with Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau, as separate “countries” on a customer survey, resulting in the hotel brand being forced to suspend its website and app in China for one week and issue a groveling apology.
Soon, a number of other international companies, including Delta and Zara, were also exposed for having listed Taiwan as a separate “country” on their websites, attracting the attention and anger of China’s internet warriors.
Taiwanese netizens were similarly enraged last month when they found that Lufthansa had changed the designation of Taiwan on its business website to “Taiwan, China,” resulting in calls for a boycott and a letter which ended with the statement that “Taiwan is not China.”
