AP News, January 10th, 2008
A Japanese educational company is recalling 10,000 electronic talking globes after customers complained that self-governing Taiwan was labeled a part of the People's Republic of China.
The "Smart Globe" sold by Tokyo-based Gakken calls Taiwan — which split from communist China amid civil war in 1949 — "Taiwan Island" and says it comes under the jurisdiction of Beijing, the company said in a statement Thursday.
An electronic voice also tells users pointing to Taiwan that the island is part of the People's Republic of China, the official name of the Chinese communist regime, according to Gakken spokesman Satoru Aihara.
He said Gakken's Chinese manufacturer had refused to produce the globes — which are sold only in Japan — unless Taiwan was labeled as a Chinese region.
"Selling these globes was a serious error on our part," Aihara said. "Unfortunately we let cost considerations override sound judgment."
Gakken received customer complaints over the labeling, spurring the recall, but there was no official complaint from Taipei, Aihara said.
The company has sold about 10,000 Smart Globes since the product hit the market in August, he said. Owners returning the globes will be reimbursed the full price of $269.
Beijing continues to see Taiwan, the self-governing island of 23 million people, as part of its territory and has promised to attack if it moves to make its de facto independence permanent.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she did not have details about the issue, but added, "I believe the one-China policy is universally recognized by the international community," referring to China's policy of demanding that all nations regard Taiwan as a part of Chinese territory.
In recent years, China's rising political and economic clout has helped it persuade more countries to recognize Beijing instead of Taipei, reducing the number of Taiwan's allies to only 24 — most of them small and impoverished nations in Latin America, Africa and the South Pacific.
China was likely to make further diplomatic inroads at Taiwan's expense around the time of legislative elections Saturday and President Chen Shui-bian's visit to Latin America next week, Foreign Minister James Huang told reporters in Taipei on Thursday.
Huang's statement came amid reports that Malawi and the Marshall Islands, two of Taiwan's allies, were considering switching allegiance to China.
Japan has said it opposes any moves by Taiwan to unilaterally declare independence.
