Emirates airline has waded into a decades-old diplomatic spat after ordering Taiwanese cabin crew to swap flag pins worn on their uniforms for Chinese ones, sparking anger and calls for boycott on social media.



The airline sent an email to staff saying Emirates was “instructed by the Chinese government” to “follow the One China policy”.

That policy refers to an arrangement where countries can maintain formal diplomatic relations with China or Taiwan, but not both.

China claims Taiwan as a breakaway province, but the democratic island has been self-ruled since 1949. China often bristles at any suggestion that Taiwan is a separate country and has not renounced the use of force to achieve unification.

“You must remove the Taiwanese flag from your service waistcoat and replace it with the Chinese flag,” Nicola Parker, a uniform standards and development manager at Emirates, wrote in an email, which was leaked to the South China Morning Post.

What is the One China policy? "One China" is an arrangement dating back to the 1970s under which countries can maintain formal diplomatic relations with China or Taiwan, but not both. After the Communists won the Chinese civil war in 1949, defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan. Both Beijing and Taipei claimed sovereignty over the entirety of China. Taiwan’s official name is the Republic of China. Until 1971, Taiwan held China’s seat at the United Nations and the following years saw a wave of states switch to recognise the Beijing government. The US formally established relations with China in 1979, but maintains informal ties with Taiwan.

The directive was later changed to say staff did not need to wear any flag pin on their uniform and the airline said the original message was “sent in error”.

An Emirates spokesman said: “This email was sent in error and has since been retracted. Our intent is to recall the flag pins worn by all our cabin crew as part of our uniform update.

“All cabin crew are no longer required to wear a flag pin as part of their uniform. Emirates apologises for the communication error.”

But a second email sent by Parker still singled out Taiwanese staff.

“Please refrain from wearing your Taiwanese flags on flights until further notice,” Parker wrote.

Emirates did not respond to questions asking whether staff could still choose to wear a Taiwanese flag pin. The badges are typically used to inform customers of a person’s language ability.

The move is similar to an order last year that required Hong Kong staff to wear a Chinese flag alongside the flag pin for the semi-autonomous territory.

The airline already has a significant presence in the Chinese market, with 39 flights a week. It serves Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and Yinchuan.

China has increasingly tried to isolate Taiwan diplomatically since the election of of Tsai Ing-wen as president last year. Her Democratic Progressive party, is seen as less friendly towards China and she has declined to formally acknowledge the One China principle.

This month China blocked Taiwan from a World Health Organization meeting after Beijing protested against Taipei’s planned attendance.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hua Chunying told a daily briefing she had not heard about the incident and did not know anything about it.