It was reported late yesterday that Taiwan had condemned a Beijing effort to pressure foreign companies – including Nike, Apple and Amazon – to list the island as part of China, in what observers said was a fresh attempt to force Taipei to the negotiating table for unification talks. Beijing is threatening these companies with severe penalties if they don't comply in an orderly manner.

A total of 66 international firms were singled out for "misidentifying" Taiwan on their websites, in an annual report on cyber rule of law in China published this week by the Social Science Academic Press in Beijing.

The report, which covered 500 top transnational companies based in 32 countries, including the US, Japan and Germany, also named 53 firms for "misidentifying" Hong Kong.

The 2018 Annual Report on Cyber Rule of Law called for the relevant authorities to punish the companies by either removing their licenses or suspending their operations on the mainland if they refused to correct their mistakes.

The Chinese report presented a graphic of Nike misidentifying” Taiwan on their websites. The image is close to the one below from Apple's website. The Taiwan flag in question is the one on the bottom left corner. Hong Kong, top right corner is also one that China claims is misidentified on U.S. websites.

The report further stated that the companies had either deliberately violated or were not aware of the one-China principle, which it said was backed by international and domestic law, adding that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China must be protected.

The fresh effort to pressure international companies follows a call by Chinese President Xi Jinping for cross-strait unification talks based on the Hong Kong model of ‘one country, two systems’.

The latest pressure from Beijing follows a demand, in mid-2018 from Chinese aviation authorities, that 44 international airlines stop referring to Taipei as being located in Taiwan and instead update their websites to say that Taipei was part of China.