China orders Marriott to suspend website, app in map furor

The company respects and support the sovereignty the and territorial integrity of China (Pixabay photo)

BEIJING — Regulators have ordered the Marriott hotel chain to close its China-based website and app for one week after criticizing the company for referring to Tibet and self-ruled Taiwan as countries in a customer survey.

The Shanghai Cyberspace Authority said Friday that Marriott was ordered to “to conduct a comprehensive self-examination and rectification to completely clean up illegal content.”

The CEO of Marriott International Inc., Arne Sorenson, said in a statement the company “respects and supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.”

The survey sent to customers asked in which country they lived and gave options including Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Beijing is intensely sensitive about the status of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that communist-ruled China claims as part of its territory, and of Tibet.