A subsidiary of the Japanese household goods, apparel and food company Ryohin Keikaku Co was fined 200,000 yuan ($31,000) by a Shanghai bureau for not checking imported packaging that listed the island of Taiwan as a country, according to media reports on Wednesday.
Muji (Shanghai) Co Ltd was fined by Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce for 119 clothes hangars imported from Japan that "wrongly marked Taiwan as the country of some items' origin," China Industry & Commerce News reported on Wednesday.
The branch was not fulfilling its responsibilities in supervising its items and selling products, according to information from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
The Japanese company had failed to check the products properly before making the hangars available at Muji's online and offline Chinese shops, in violation of China's Advertisement Law that no advertising should damage China's national dignity or interests, or leak confidential information.
Apart from fining the company, the Shanghai bureau required Muji's Shanghai branch to stop spreading illegal advertising, withdraw the relevant products and destroy the packaging.
In January, Muji was warned by China's mapping authorities "wrongly marking Taiwan" in an advertising flier. Muji could not be reached before press time.
Internet users swarmed onto the company's official Sina Weibo microblog account this week demanding apologies.
"How much punishment could make this foreign company learn to respect China's core interests and Chinese people's feelings?" posted luxidaniu on Wednesday.
