China fines Japanese retailer for listing Taiwan as country

Beijing, May 24 (IANS) China has fined Japanese retail chain Muji 200,000 yuan ($31,300) for listing Taiwan as a "country of origin" on some of its packaging, the media reported on Thursday.

This year, Muji had imported clothes hangers in packaging marking Taiwan as the "country of origin", the BBC quoted Shanghai's administration for industry and commerce as saying.

The regulator added that Muji had since made corrections and changed the packaging. 

Taiwan has been self-ruling since 1950 but Beijing regards it as a breakaway province of China. 

This is the second time Muji has drawn China's ire over its use of maps and islands. 

In January, it withdrew a catalogue over complaints that it included maps that did not show Taiwan and a disputed group of islands in the South China Sea, the BBC reported.

Earlier, US clothing company GAP apologized for selling T-shirts with a map of China which did not show the island of Taiwan and other disputed territories.

In January, US airline Delta was forced to apologize for listing Taiwan and Tibet as countries on its website.