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Taiwan demands Apple amend map app over its inclusion under China

The Taiwanese government has expressed concerns over a mistake made by Apple on its new map app, which wrongly lists the island country as a province of China, demanding a correction as soon as possible.
Written by Chiu Yu-Tzu, Contributor

Shortly after Apple's loyal fans in Taiwan in mid October welcomed new products, the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c running iOS 7, the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone, their enthusiasm was dampened by the new map app's listing the island as "a province of China".

In addition to iOS 7, Apple released in mid September for its mobile devices, iPhones and iPads, the recently released Mac OS X Mavericks, which has been available for download for desktop and laptop users since October 23, makes the same mistake. Taiwanese users, who set the language for their devices as traditional Chinese, soon noticed that Taiwan is listed as "Taiwan Province, China" in simplified Chinese characters in the map app. In the English version, the same mistakes exist.

taiwan map
Apple's map on the latest OS shows Taiwan as part of China. (source: Liberty Times)

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has instructed its office in San Francisco to contact Apple, demanding a correction as soon as possible, according to state-run Central News Agency.

"We'll make every effort on this issue. No compromise will be made over this kind of matter," said Kelly Hsieh, head of the ministry's Department of North American Affairs, adding that the description on the map about Taiwan is far from reality and degrades the country.

The issue has triggered online discussion, which slams Apple's China province tag. Many Taiwanese Apple fans expressed their bad feelings about being mistaken as Chinese, while some said they would disable the map function on their Apple devices.

In 2005, a similar mistake cited by the Google Maps service was corrected shortly after users of Taiwan expressed strong opposition.

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