Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot listed Taiwan as part of China, prompting Taiwan to lodge a protest.

According to Central News Agency, Taiwan ordered its representative office in Singapore to lodge "stern representations" with the airlines.

Taiwan's foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Lee Hsien-chang said that Taiwan would ask the companies to "rectify the inappropriate name as soon as possible".

Scoot is owned by Singapore Airlines through its subsidiary Budget Aviation Holdings.

Not all foreign airlines caved in to Beijing's request

China has previously made a request to 44 foreign airlines in April, asking them to change any reference to Taiwan so that it is not referred to as a 'country'. They also requested Taiwan's flag to be taken off their websites.

At Beijing's behest, foreign airlines including Qantas, Delta Airlines and Air Canada have since made the changes accordingly.

However, not every airline acceded to Beijing's request, such as American Airlines, which said it was following the direction of the U.S. government.

As for British Airways, after it received a number of complaints in March for listing the airport in Taipei as being in "Taiwan (China)", it reportedly apologised.

However, as of June 13, British Airways still lists Taiwan as part of China.

Other than Singapore Airlines and Scoot, Taiwan has previously protested Qatar Airways' decision to change the nationalities of crew from "Taiwanese" to "Chinese (TWN)" on registration documents.

Some Taiwanese people have also protested German carrier Lufthansa's move to list Taiwan under China.

Taiwan a sensitive issue to China

Beijing's request to airlines to comply with a demand to list Taiwan as a region of China has been slammed by Washington as “Orwellian nonsense”.

Taiwan is an extremely sensitive territorial issue to China.

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China considers the island as a renegade province and does not rule out the use of force to bring it under Chinese control.

Back in March, it urged Taiwan’s allies to follow the “irresistible trend” and ditch Taipei in favour of a “one China” ruled by Beijing, saying that it was in their best interests.

Top image via Singapore Airlines & Scoot

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