Snickers Photo:VCG

Snickers China has apologized for marking Taiwan as a country in a video on Friday, saying that the local team has verified and aligned its official website and social media accounts to ensure its publicity content is accurate and flawless. 

Mars Wrigley, owner of Snickers, said in a statement that it respects China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity and that it strictly follows local Chinese laws and regulations. 

The remarks came after a recent video advert was posted online saying that an event in cooperation with South Korean boy band BTS was only being held in the countries of South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Snickers China said they take this issue very seriously and apologize for it. 

The company has immediately asked the local Snickers team to check and align its official website and official social media account to ensure that the company's publicity content is accurate, the company said on its official Weibo account.

At present, the markets involved in the event have completed the rectification of the relevant content, the company said. 

The apology was listed in a top ten of hot topics on Weibo on Friday afternoon, but it seems that netizens are not buying it. “Is it so hard to say only one-China?” said one comment. Others said the company should make the same announcement on twitter.

Mars’ chocolate had a leading market share of 32.8 percent in China in 2020, news outlet thepaper.cn reported in February this year, citing data from Euromonitor international. 

In an earlier interview with the Global Times in March 2020, Clarence Mak, president of Mars Wrigley China, said "We believe China will have a new wave of consumption in the business we are in. We will adjust our production to meet the huge market demand in China.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Friday it would sanction US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family members because she disregarded China's serious concerns and firm opposition to visiting China's Taiwan island.  

It seriously interferes in China's internal affairs, undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, tramples on the one-China principle and threatens peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.  

Snickers is a chocolate product produced by Mars Wrigley, a leading manufacturer of chocolate, chewing gum, mints and fruity confections. The company has many world-renowned brands, including Dove, M&M’s and Snickers.