US retailer Gap Inc has been forced to apologise 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.
“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,” it said in a statement posted on its Weibo account on Monday evening.
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"We sincerely apologise for this unintentional error."
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 US companies which have issued apologies for similar incidents include Delta Air Lines and Marriott International Inc.
Earlier this month, the White House sharply criticised China’s efforts to force foreign airlines to change how they described Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau on their websites as “Orwellian nonsense.”
