The London School of Economics is considering amending a Mark Wallinger globe sculpture to show Taiwan as part of China after student protests.

The World Turned Upside Down statue, which was unveiled last week outside LSE’s student activity centre, is a “large political globe” where the geographical locations of nation states have been inverted to show the world “from a different viewpoint.”

On the map, Taiwan is coloured pink while China is coloured yellow. Taiwan is a de facto independent state but is considered to be a breakaway province by the Chinese government. It is recognised by 16 countries, but not at the United Nations.

Mainland Chinese students protested against the demarcation of Taiwan on Mr Wallinger's sculpture, and the use of a red dot for Taipei as the capital city of a country, like other nations shown on the globe.

Taiwanese students however maintained the globe should remain as is, as Taiwan operates like any other democratic nation with its own government – led by president Tsai Ing-wen, a LSE alumnus – currency, military and foreign policy. Most of its 23.5 million people identify as Taiwanese.

A spokeswoman for LSE said: “The artwork currently does not reflect our understanding of United Nations delineations that it was due to represent.