VANCOUVER—Royal Bank of Canada customers who wish to wire payments to Taiwan will find it listed as a “province of China” on its website.

The bank’s designation is coming to light after a similar move made by Air Canada to change the name of Taiwanese cities as part of China on its website.

That came after a notice was issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration on April 25 to 36 air carriers that “demanded” they change the reference of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao to “fall in line with the Communist Party’s standards,” according to the White House.

The decision caused an uproar of protests and backlash within the Taiwanese-Canadian community, and led to a social media boycott campaign.

RBC, which also operates a centre in Beijing and Hong Kong, did not answer questions about when the designation began, whether the Chinese government was involved, nor why Taiwan is listed as a province of China.

But RBC said it “has been leveraging the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for country descriptions. As part of our commitment to responding to the needs of our clients we will be making updates to our system to change how Taiwan is listed.”

The bank did not respond to a follow-up question about what the “updates” will be.

Kevin Ang, a Taiwanese-Canadian who launched an Air Canada boycott campaign that resulted in hundreds of protest messages on the airline’s Facebook page, said RBC’s move to list Taiwan as a province of China is an “outrage” and the company should stand by its own values.

“We should not bow down to other parties just because we can have better business access,” Ang said. “That’s just completely wrong.”

He’s urging the Canadian government to do its part to “protect the independence of Canadian businesses from the unjust interference of third parties.”

Since the backlash, Air Canada has since reclassified Taiwanese cities such as Taipei as “Taipei, Taiwan, CN.” Ang said the change is “unsatisfactory,” citing that it still positions Taiwan as part of China.

Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that “Air Canada and RBC are private companies and are responsible for the contents of their websites.” It added that “Canada’s long-standing position on this issue has not changed.”

Charles Chang, president of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in B.C., knew about RBC’s name change a few days ago and said he believes it was done under the pressure of the Chinese government. “Otherwise, they have no reason to make a change.”

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Chang believes most companies will stand by Canadian values and resist pressure to change their policies. “I have no problem with the ‘one China’ policy, but we shouldn’t put Taiwan as China. Taiwan is not China.”

The Chinese consulate in Vancouver did not respond to interview requests.

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