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Chinese report ‘names and shames’ Fortune 500 firms for mislabelling its territories
- Researchers produce study to highlight ‘failings’ of firms like CK Hutchison Holdings, AIA Group and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
- Report finds 127 examples of ‘mistaken’ or ‘inappropriate’ labelling on companies’ websites
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Jun Maiin Beijing
A group of Chinese scholars will publish a report in November identifying companies on the Fortune Global 500 list that they say do not properly label Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau as territories of the People’s Republic of China.
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Among the firms to be named and shamed is CK Hutchison Holdings – once run by the now retired Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing – which according to Zhi Zhenfeng, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and lead author of the study, is guilty of “inappropriately labelling” the territories.
Some details of the report have already been published by China’s state media.
Despite the allegation, CK Hutchison said on Thursday that its websites always listed Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as regions or markets, and never as countries.
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But Zhi said that even listing cities and provinces as regions was problematic.
“On those lists, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan look like independent entities and there is no clear explanation that they are part of China,” he said.
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