SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Luxury jeweler Bulgari apologized on Tuesday after presenting Taiwan as an independent country on its international website, angering Chinese netizens.
The company and the celebrities who represent the brand have become the most discussed topics on Weibo, a Chinese platform similar to Twitter, after netizens noticed that Taiwan was placed on the list of independent countries on Bulgari’s website.
“Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and cannot be listed as a country,” reacted the nationalist daily Global Times.
Bulgari, owned by LVMH, apologized on its official Weibo account, citing a management error and stating “to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China”.
Bulgari is the latest international brand to create controversy in China. In 2019, luxury brands Versace, Givenchy and Coach faced criticism from Chinese netizens for listing Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as countries on their respective websites.
Hong Kong and Macau are two Chinese special administrative regions while the Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan a rebel province that was supposed to return to Chinese rule, although it never controlled the island.
(Reporting by Casey Hall; French version Zhifan Liu, editing by Kate Entringer)
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