Replace ‘Tibet’ with ‘Xizang’ on product translations, Chinese e-commerce platform warns its online retailers
- Weidian advises millions of merchants to stop using ‘Tibet’ in English product descriptions, or face removal
- Notice follows a foreign ministry readout which used ‘Xizang’ as the official Chinese translation for the autonomous region
A Chinese e-commerce service provider has advised its platform merchants to replace “Tibet” with “Xizang” – the Chinese pinyin version of the region – for product translations after Beijing signalled its language preference for the southwest region.
The order to overhaul the translations on all product names and descriptions appeared in a notice issued by the e-commerce platform Weidian on Wednesday.
Weidian, China’s version of Shopify, enables small and midsized entrepreneurs to set up online stores. According to its official website, Weidian operates more than 90 million online retail outlets with a trading volume of 100 billion yuan (US$13.7 billion).
The platform warned merchants their products would be removed if they displayed the word “Tibet”. No deadline for the transition was mentioned.
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