I can’t imagine that, as a graphic designer for US clothing giant Gap, you would have ever anticipated that part of your job would require officially apologising to the nation of China thanks to an international upset you caused with one of your shitty shirt designs. And yet here we are.
Gap has indeed had to make a full apology to the People’s Republic of China after producing and selling a t-shirt with a map of China on it that just so happened to leave off Taiwan and a portion of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh that China claims as ‘Southern Tibet‘. According to the Washington Post, it also drew ire for not correctly demarcating China’s claimed territory in the South China Sea.
American clothing retailer @Gap on Monday apologized for printing incomplete Chinese map on T-shirts for sales outside #China, said the brand respects China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity pic.twitter.com/uHJoLnpmr6
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) May 14, 2018
The shirt, which was sold in Canada, garnered attention after a picture was posted to the Chinese social media site Weibo.
According to the Global Times newspaper, Gap made a statement which definitely doesn’t sound at all absurd in the context of them being a clothing company:
Gap Inc. respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. We’ve learned a Gap brand T-shirt sold in some overseas markets mistakenly failed to reflect the correct map of China. We sincerely apologize for this unintentional error.
The company said they would be undertaking “rigorous reviews” to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
I guess this is the risk you run when China is a country that’s dogmatic in claiming its sovereignty over disputed territorial claims and you’re a clothing company that makes those cheap shirts for dads that have writing on them that really doesn’t actually mean anything.
