Australian Airline Qantas Succumbs to Beijing’s Request to Refer to Taiwan as China

A Qantas airplane takes off at Melbourne Airport in Melbourne, Australia, on October 31, 2011. Scott Barbour/Getty Images

SYDNEY—Australia’s Qantas Airways said it plans to change its website to refer to Taiwan as part of China, not an independent nation, but that it needed extra time to comply with the request from the Chinese regime.

In April, China’s aviation regulator gave three dozen airlines a May 25 deadline to remove references on their websites or in other material that suggest Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau are part of countries independent from China, a move described by the United States White House as “Orwellian nonsense.”