Beijing Says U.S. Apologized for Confusing China With Taiwan<br />By AUSTIN RAMZYJULY 10, 2017<br />HONG KONG — A Chinese official said on Monday that the United States had apologized for a White House statement<br />that misidentified China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as president of the Republic of China — the formal name for Taiwan.<br />"The United States side apologized and said this was a technological error<br />that has already been corrected." The erroneous reference was in the heading of a White House transcript, released on Saturday, of presidential remarks before a bilateral meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi at the Group of 20 session in Hamburg, Germany.<br />And another White House statement called the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, "President Abe of Japan."<br />The Republic of China flub was awkward for Beijing, which considers Taiwan part of its territory.<br />The United States severed formal ties with Taiwan in 1979 as part of the so-called<br />One China policy under which it recognizes Beijing as the government of China.<br />In December, Donald Trump, as president-elect, accepted a telephone call from President Tsai Ing-wen<br />of Taiwan, which broke with decades of United States precedent and was considered a snub for Beijing.
