Angry Chinese citizens took to social media to rage against yet another corporate slight, but this time they boycotted their own home-grown brand.
Screenshots of Huawei’s P-series phones listing Taiwan as a separate country went viral on Weibo last Wednesday (Aug 14).
The default language setting was Simplified Chinese, which is used in the Mainland, showed “Taipei (China).”
However, when users changed the language setting to traditional characters, the time zone option instead showed “Taipei (Taiwan)” implying that Taiwan is a separate country.
Chinese netizens were quick to boycott the home brand and started a trending hashtag #HuaweiGetOutOfChina on Weibo.
Huwei was accused of being a “traitor” and “adopting double standards” for the mislabel.
One angry netizen called on everyone to “pick up a Huawei phone and smash it” in order to show support for “national sovereignty” and “crush all separatist acts.”
Another cried out, “Why can’t Chinese companies abide by Chinese laws?”
Netizens were outraged at what they regarded as the “double standards” from the company and demanded an apology from Huawei.
The company has since updated the software for the affected Huawei phones that now show “Taipei (China)” in all language settings.
Several international brands such as Versace, Givenchy, Coach, and Swarovski have come under fire for similarly indicating that Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are separate countries from China./TISG
After Versace, Givenchy and Coach, Swarovski the latest luxury brand to infuriate China