Ya Kun Kaya Toast sorry for violating China ad laws in calling Taiwan country

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Singapore-based Ya Kun Kaya Toast has deeply apologised for the error of listing Taiwan as a country in its promotional video which was recently played at an outlet in Nanjing. According to a Weibo post by Btime.com, which publishes bite-sized videos online, the promotional video featured a list of overseas markets Ya Kun operates in. Taiwan was listed as a country among nine others, including China, Japan, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines.

According to The Straits Times (ST), Btime.com is owned by state media Beijing Radio and Television Station. Meanwhile, state-owned media outlet Global Times said Ya Kun is currently being investigated for suspicion of violating ad laws. The individual in charge of the restaurant is also under investigation, Global Times added.

Ya Kun said in a statement that an internal review was immediately conducted and it was revealed that the promotional video was outsourced and produced in 2013. It added that the company's failure to thoroughly check the video led to the error of Taiwan being reflected as a country. "We stand by the One China policy. We have deeply reflected upon this issue and immediately deleted any related videos," Ya Kun said. It added in the statement that such an incident should not have occurred and also deeply apologised. A search by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE also revealed that Ya Kun has taken down its list of overseas locations on its website.

Btime.com's post on Ya Kun had 8,300 million likes and over 4,800 comments at the time of writing, with several netizens expressing their disapproval over Ya Kun's labelling of Taiwan as a country. One user commented on Ya Kun's lack of tact, saying "No matter what your education or governmental policies are, you should abide by the Chinese legal system when you are in China." Some netizens even posted disapproving comments on Singapore itself. One user said "Isn't Singapore pro-American?", with another user adding that Singapore is "the pioneer of anti-Chinese".

However, a handful of netizens explained that foreigners typically view Taiwan as a separate entity from China, especially since it has its own government. "Hong Kong, too, is usually thought of as separate from China," the user said. ST reported that Btime.com also interviewed a mall employee, who said that the shop has been closed for at least two days after the mall received notification that it had "inappropriate advertising".

Ya Kun is not the first company to have copped flak for singling out Taiwan as a country. Chinese singer and actor Lu Han cut ties with Swiss luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet last month after the CEO François-Henry Bennahmias described Taiwan as an “ultra-modern, high-tech country” in an interview. In the statement, Lu and his studio said national interests are above all else, and they will defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Taiwanese celebrity Dee Hsu and Hong Kong actress Myolie Wu also faced criticism from China in July. Hsu lost some endorsement deals from China after she called Taiwanese players "national athletes" on Instagram. The loss of the endorsement deals with Chinese brands come after Chinese Taipei's defeat of People's Republic of China in the Olympic men's doubles badminton final, where Hsu celebrated the success of Taiwanese athletes Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin.

Meanwhile, Wu was accused of promoting Hong Kong independence by Chinese netizens after using the word "China" in a sentence on Instagram when describing her job, instead of "Mainland". Unhappy Chinese netizens asked her to leave the place she was making a living from, while others dug deeper to opine that Wu did not publish any posts to show her support to China.

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