US retailer Gap apologises for 'erroneous' China map printed on a T-shirt
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US clothing retailer Gap has apologised for selling T-shirts with what it says was an "erroneous" map of China that did not include territories claimed by China, following a burst of outrage on Chinese social media.
Gap took action after photos began circulating on the Chinese social media site Weibo of a T-shirt with a map that did not include Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing regards as Chinese territory.
The map also appeared to leave out southern Tibet and the disputed South China Sea, the state-owned Global Times said, adding that it drew hundreds of complaints online.
China has been ramping-up efforts to police language used to describe Chinese-claimed territories such as Taiwan.
In a post on China's Weibo microblogging platform, the company said it discovered that some T-shirts it sold overseas "had an erroneous design of China's map".
It promised to carry out "more rigorous reviews" in the future.
The company also said all the shirts in China have been recalled and destroyed. It was unclear if the shirts in all of Gap's markets worldwide would also be destroyed.
The photos were taken at a Gap shop in Canada's Niagara region, China's state-owned Global Times said.
Gap is the latest of several companies that have apologised for perceived slights to China's sovereignty.
The US has started pushing back against Beijing, with the White House condemning China's efforts to control how US airlines refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as "Orwellian nonsense".
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