Japanese Globe Tampered by China

Toxic materials aren't the only thing you need to worry about from "Made in China" products -- historical accuracies are also at risk.

Tokyo-based educational company Gakken is recalling 10,000 of their electronic talking Smart Globes following a rash of customer complaints about a mislabeled Taiwan. On the globes, Taiwan — a self-governing nation that split from communist China in 1949 during a civil war — is labeled as “Taiwan Island,” and the globe’s smart pen reader, which streams audio data about a nation’s geography, history and culture whenever you touch its location on the globe, identifies Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China.

According to Gakken's spokesperson, the company had initially planned to display Taiwan as is standard in Japanese textbooks, but
Beijing intervened. "The place of production was China," he said. "The Chinese government's stance was that we could not export unless we changed the expression.
We obeyed it although we had wavered on if we should follow the Chinese instructions or give up
(on the product)." The company included a note with each Smart
Globe that explained the change in Taiwan’s name and data as a result of instructions from the Chinese government.

This isn't the only "smart" globe to be tampered with by the Chinese government. Toy maker Takara Tomy announced on January 10 their recall of “Talking Globe,” which, like Gakken’s Smart Globe, features a mislabeled Taiwan and was manufactured in China.

See also:

• How Many More Recalls Until We Stop Outsourcing to China?
• Safer Toys