Mediacorp forced to apologize to Chinese and Taiwanese embassy for graphic blunder over flag

Singapore broadcaster Mediacorp was forced to apologize after making a major on-screen blunder that might have ruffled some serious diplomatic feathers.

In a promo clip for the latest episode of Channel 8’s My Star Guide series, actress Felicia Chin invites viewers on a trip to Taitung and Yilan in Taiwan organized by travel agency Chan Brothers Travel. Unfortunately, one of the graphics shown behind Chin was a Taiwanese flag superimposed on a map of mainland China. Oof.

This, in case you weren’t aware, is not okay. Taiwan considers itself an independent, fully self-governing state, but China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and wants the country to officially return under its rule. Recently, things have been getting even testier between the two countries — Beijing could be considering forcible methods to seize the island of Taiwan.

That’s why Mediacorp’s little error in graphics production might have caused bigger ramifications than easily believed. According to the South China Morning Post, the slip-up was picked up by two mainland websites — both nationalist portals that censored the image of the Taiwanese flag.

“We have sincerely apologized to the embassy of the People’s Republic of China and the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore,” said Mediacorp in response to its blunder.

On its Facebook page, Chan Brothers Travel has since replaced the trailer with an edited one that doesn’t include any graphic of the Taiwanese flag.



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Comments

  1. That map also includes Mongolia, parts of Burma, India, Bhutan, Vietnam, and some tidbits of other neighboring countries. It’s actually the map of the territory of the Republic of China, as they conceived of themselves between 1911 and the mid-90’s. It’s worth pointing out that the Republican/KMT government never actually controlled all that territory at once, or ever in many cases. It was an ambitious political statement of intent, similar to the PRC’s insistence that Taiwan, which the PRC has never governed, must be part of the PRC’s territory. Ambitious, rhetorical, and lacking any grounding in reality.

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