The White House on Saturday (6/5) strongly criticized China's move to force foreign airlines to change the mention of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as an independent state. China's civil aviation service has sent letters to 36 foreign airlines, including some from the United States (US).
The White House calls it the "Orwelian, which does not make sense" policy. US President Donald Trump, according to an official White House statement, "will take the side of an effort to counter the Chinese Communist Party's move, which imposed Chinese-version political correctness on US companies and citizens."
"It's an Orwelian policy, that does not make sense, we urge China to stop forcing and threatening American airlines," the White House said.
Taiwan itself is the most sensitive territorial issue for Beijing, which requires all countries to recognize the region as one of China's provinces - or better known as the one-China policy. Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Macau are former European colonies, now part of China, but with relatively autonomous governments.
The White House's harsh criticism came after tough trade talks between the two countries earlier this week. Trump demanded a $ 200 billion trade deficit reduction by 2020, lowering tariffs and removing subsidies for China's tech industry, sources said.
"My team has just returned from China and we have to rework our relationship with China because so far the relationship between the two countries is not balanced," Trump said on Saturday.
Earlier this week, Trump boasted his good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, until now there has been no sign of successful negotiations until Thursday and Friday, raising fears of a trade war between the two countries with the world's largest economy.
Trump has proposed a tariff of US $ 50 billion for Chinese-origin goods that could potentially come into effect next month. China has threatened to impose tariffs on US soybean and homemade products.
Beijing also asked Washington to treat investments from China on a par with other countries, and stopped imposing restrictions on Chinese capital. The dispute over how foreign airlines call Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau is another tension between the United States and China.
A spokesman for Airlines for America, which represents a number of companies from the United States, said that they are communicating with the government to decide a step further. In January, Delta Air Lines apologized for "making a mistake unintentionally without political intent" for calling Taiwan and Tibet a state.