Airlines' Taiwan listing change 'positive'

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the move by the three biggest US airlines to change how they refer to Taiwan on their booking websites was a "positive development".

A check of the websites of American, Delta and United airlines on Wednesday afternoon showed only the airport code and city names of airports in Taiwan, without adding the name Taiwan behind them, as they did previously.

The airlines' move came right before Wednesday's deadline for the changes. But they didn't use the expression "Taiwan, China", as many other foreign airlines did after the Civil Aviation Administration of China demanded on April 25 that 44 foreign airlines review their websites and apps to cease listing the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan as independent countries.