Shooting the pianist

Tuesday, October 04, 2005 (15:59 UTC)

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.