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Gap apologizes for selling T-shirt with 'incorrect map' of China
US retailer GAP Inc apologized on Monday for selling a T-shirt which it said had an incorrect map of China, adding it would implement “rigorous reviews” to prevent a repeat mistake.
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People walk nearby a Gap store in Beijing, China, on Feb. 21, 2016. (Shutterstock/File)
U
S retailer Gap Inc apologized on Monday for selling a T-shirt which it said had an incorrect map of China, adding it would implement “rigorous reviews” to prevent a repeat mistake.
The apology came after a person posted pictures of the T-shirt on Chinese social media network Weibo, saying that Chinese territories, including south Tibet, the island of Taiwan and the South China Sea, were omitted from the map. The user said the photo of the T-shirt was taken at an outlet store in Canada.
American clothing retailer @Gap on Monday apologized for printing incomplete Chinese map on T-shirts for sales outside #China, said the brand respects China's sovereignty and territorial integrity pic.twitter.com/uHJoLnpmr6
— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) May 14, 2018
“Gap Inc. respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. We’ve learned that a Gap brand T-shirt sold in some overseas markets failed to reflect the correct map of China. We sincerely apologize for this unintentional error,” it said in a statement posted on its Weibo account on Monday evening.
Read also: Ikea apologizes for turning down actor based on skin color
It added that the products had been pulled from the Chinese market and destroyed.
Gap’s apology comes as China has been ramping up efforts to police language used to describe Chinese-claimed territories such as Taiwan. Other U.S. companies which have issued apologies for similar incidents include Delta Air Lines and Marriott International Inc.
Earlier this month, the White House sharply criticized China’s efforts to force foreign airlines to change how they described Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau on their websites as “Orwellian nonsense.”
