Taiwan isn’t complaining about the resolution of Google Earth; It’s complaining about the labeling in Google Maps. It is not “Taiwan, Province of China” it says, but a fully fledged country.
No doubt Google uses a standard-issue name database published by the US or the UN. And in neither would Taiwan show up as a country — The US has not recognized Taiwan since 1979, at the cajoling of China, and Taiwan does not have a seat at the UN, courtesy of the Chinese veto.
Still, if you look at the facts on the ground, Taiwan has all the trappings of a country. And if you believe in accuracy, then the “province of China” label does amount to a bit of wishful political thinking.
Luckily, Google seems to have inadvertently solved this dilemma: While Google Maps indeed does have Taiwan as a part of China, Google Earth dispenses with the formalities and just calls Taiwan Taiwan.
Who said being popular would be easy?
(via The Register.)
Taiwan, Province of China
Taiwan has asked Google to stop labelling it as a “province of China” in Google Maps. BBC coverage (via Cartography). Google Maps Mania has an excellent post that includes links to other news sources. Google Earth Blog and Ogle Earth…
By the terms of constitution of the RoC, the state running the island, the island of Taiwan is a province of the Republic of China …