Hotel that listed Taiwan and Tibet as countries has website shut by Beijing

CHINA has shut down the Marriott hotel group’s website after it listed Hong Kong and Tibet as countries in an online survey.

Despite a series of apologies and a clarification that it does not support “separatism” Marriott has become the latest international company to be punished by Beijing for apparently disrespecting China’s sovereignty.

Authorities in Shanghai on Thursday ordered Marriott to close its website for a week and “conduct a thorough check on all contents”. Visitors to the site were confronted with a message stating: “We never support any separatist organisation that harms China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“We apologise profoundly for any behaviour that will cause misunderstanding about the above stance.”

Marriott had sent out a questionnaire in Chinese that asked members of its customer rewards programme to list their country of residence.

The options included Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Hong Kong and Macau, which were former British and Portuguese colonies, are ruled as Special Administrative Regions by Beijing. China considers Taiwan to be a breakaway province and not a “country”, while Tibet is ruled by Beijing as an autonomous region. Marriott incensed Beijing further when its Marriott Rewards Twitter account liked a tweet from Friends of Tibet, which supports Tibetan independence.