A Shanghai Fudan University professor has filed a lawsuit that accuses Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu - a branch of one of the world's biggest four accounting firms -- of listing Taiwan on its website as a separate nation.

The action, filed on August 30 at the Huangpu District Court in Shanghai, finds Professor Xie Baisan claiming Deloitte has violated the spirit of the Chinese Anti-Secession Law, approved by the National People's Congress in March of 2005.

Professor Xie, a renowned finance and securities scholar at Fudan University, is asking Deloitte for an apology "to all the Chinese people" and compensation of 100,000 yuan for "spiritual" damages.

According to China's Anti-Secession Law, Article 2, there is only one China in the world. Both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China, and China's sovereignty and territorial integrity brook no division; with Taiwan as part of China.

As the first foreign-funded accounting firm to open in China, Deloitte has been operating in China for about 20 years with more than 4,000 employees. The firm has more than 1,000 Chinese employees on its payroll.

It is inexcusable for such a professional accounting firm to make such a mistake, the professor said, adding "I don't think they just did it by chance."

A Deloitte official explained the firm was simply attempting to make it easier for its customers to locate its locations by placing the two areas in the "Global Site Selector" column on its website home page. However, except for Taiwan, in the column they didn't place Hong Kong, Macao and other Chinese cities, where they do run their business.

In the face of the lawsuit, nonetheless, the official pledged to correct the error.

By press time, however, Deloitte had not yet made any change to the incorrect information, and still listed Taiwan is "a country."

The lawsuit apparently marks the first one of this kind, court officials said. Due to its political sensitivity, it remains unknown that whether the court will decide to hear the case. Also, if the plaintiff were to win the case, it is still uncertain as to whether the verdict could be enforced.

Nonetheless, the professor is convinced that Deloitte's mistake is not a simple matter. Xie said the feelings of the Chinese people are hurt by such indignities and it is necessary to take such offenders to court to correct the record.

(China Daily September 7, 2005)