China fines Japanese retailer

Beijing, May 24: China has fined Japanese retail chain Muji 200,000 yuan ($31,300) for listing Taiwan as a “country of origin” on some of its packaging. This year, Muji had imported clothes hangers in packaging marking Taiwan as the “country of origin”. The regulator added that Muji had since made corrections and changed the packaging.

Taiwan has been self-ruling since 1950 but Beijing regards it as a breakaway province of China. This is the second time Muji has drawn China’s ire over its use of maps and islands. In January, it withdrew a catalogue over complaints that it included maps that did not show Taiwan and a disputed group of islands in the South China Sea, the BBC reported. (IANS)