Naturally outraged
The motherland is glorious, but now and then she gets a bit hypersensitive and hysterical.
Mainland science bureaucrats have apparently started a row with science journal Nature over a map of China it published in a supplement in November. The map, horror of horrors, did not show Taiwan. As the supplement was about the state of mainland science and its funding policy, the journal may be forgiven for excluding Taiwan, although it is an integral part of the motherland (as we all know).
The journal admitted the map had only been 'inserted for decorative purposes' and agreed to round up all the suspect copies and destroy them, 'in recognition of the acute sensitivity in China of the issue', says its editorial in the latest issue. The entire edition was reprinted, without the map.
However, a few hundred copies of the supplement had already been distributed, and at a recent state meeting, bureaucrats from the Ministry of Science and Technology ran amok with copies of the original edition, voicing theories that Nature was in a conspiracy to rip Taiwan from the bosoms of the motherland.
