December 07, 2004 - Reuters reports that China has banned Sports Interactive's football management simulator for classifying Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet as countries:

Any Web site that offered downloads of the game would be fined up to $1,210, Xinhua said, quoting an order from the Ministry of Culture. Cybercafes that failed to prevent players from downloading, installing or playing the game would be fined as much as $1,815, it added.

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau were listed as independent countries in the game, and the Himalayan region of Tibet, which Chinese troops occupied in 1950, is called "Chinese Tibet," which elevated it to the same level as China itself, Xinhua said.

Taiwan and the mainland have been politically separate for 55 years but Beijing considers the democratic island of 23 million people a rebel part of China's territory and has vowed to unite it with the mainland, by force if necessary.