Beijing: US apologised for confusing China with Taiwan

Chinese delegation members arrange flags before a photo-op with President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 session in Hamburg. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)

HONG KONG - A Chinese official said Monday that the United States had apologised for a White House statement that misidentified China's leader, Xi Jinping, as president of the Republic of China -- the formal name for Taiwan.

"According to my understanding, the Chinese side has already raised this with the United States side," said Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. "The United States side apologised and said this was a technological error that has already been corrected."

The erroneous reference was in the heading of a White House transcript, released Saturday, of presidential remarks before a bilateral meeting by President Donald Trump and Xi at the Group of 20 session in Hamburg, Germany. Mr Xi is the president of the People's Republic of China.

The gaffe was one of a handful of misnomers issued by the White House during the summit meeting. Mr Trump's Instagram account briefly identified Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore as President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, Singapore news outlets reported. And another White House statement called the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, "President Abe of Japan."

The Republic of China flub was awkward for Beijing, which considers Taiwan part of its territory. China does whatever it can to undermine the self-governed island's international recognition, blocking its participation in international organisations and refusing to have diplomatic ties with the small number of nations that recognise it.

A Chinese-language transcript from Mr Geng's Monday news briefing on the Foreign Ministry website rendered "Republic of China" in English, highlighting the discomfort with the name in Beijing.

In December, Mr Trump, as president-elect, accepted a telephone call from President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, which broke with decades of US precedent and was considered a snub for Beijing. The United States severed formal ties with Taiwan in 1979 as part of the so-called One China policy under which it recognises Beijing as the government of China.

Mr Trump later suggested that he might not be bound by the One China policy, but he reaffirmed it during a call with Mr Xi in February.

The similarity of China's and Taiwan's formal names has produced embarrassments for the White House before. In 2006, a White House announcer referred to the anthem of the "Republic of China" during a visit by Hu Jintao, the Chinese president at the time.