South Korea has designated Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” on its online registration form for arriving tourists, visitors from the island recently discovered.
This comes as Beijing and Tokyo are locked in a diplomatic spat over the Japanese prime minister’s remarks on a hypothetical Taiwan contingency.
Taiwan has protested the “unfriendly” designation, with its foreign ministry on Wednesday citing multiple reports from Taiwanese travelling to South Korea and urging that Seoul correct the “apparently factually incorrect” label.
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On the website for South Korea’s electronic arrival form, known as the e-arrival card, both the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields on the drop-down menu list Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)”.
Taiwan was “disappointed and dissatisfied” and had “repeatedly expressed serious concern” over the matter, the foreign ministry said on its website. It added that representations had been lodged with the South Korean government, urging an immediate correction, but no positive response had been received.
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The “unfriendly listing” had caused “unnecessary confusion” and inconvenience for Taiwanese travellers and also “hurt public sentiment” in Taiwan, the statement said.