Page 4 of 4

Politics and Business a Poor Mix

Although Taiwan officially lost its seat in the United Nations 48 years ago in 1971, issues on the nomenclature used to describe the archipelago remains an extremely sensitive matter. If dealt with indelicately, it can easily spark unintended shocks from all corners of the world as major brands like Swarovski, Versace, Coach, and Givenchy have demonstrated.

Banks have not been immune to the matter. BNP Paribas was recently under fire due after one of its employees called for independence in their personal social media account. Chinese netizens applied even more pressure afterward as scrutinizing its website for other issues such as its inclusion of Taiwan in a list of «countries».

The bank has since changed the label and the location is now titled «Taiwan, China».

At least a dozen banks have anonymously told finews.asia that its marketing and communications staff have been very active in thoroughly revising all content to avoid such issues, marking the nomenclature of sensitive regions as their top priority in the last month.