China's telecom authority has denied allegations that it banned Matsushita Communication Industrial Co. from selling mobile phones for a year, the official China Daily reported Friday.
Matsushita Communication reportedly fell foul of the Ministry of Information Industry by referring to Taiwan as the Republic of China in software developed for mobile handsets sold in China, the report says.
China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, considers the term offensive since it denotes a sovereign political entity.
Dialing Taiwan's direct-dial code, 886, on some models of Matsushita mobile phones caused "ROC" to be displayed, the China Daily said.
After being informed of the error, the company reportedly recalled the handsets and replaced them with updated models.
Some media reports stated that Matsushita was to be shut out of Chinese markets because of the mistake.
"We do not know where the news came from and we are trying to figure out how best to handle the situation," the China Daily quoted an unidentified ministry official as saying.
The ministry's department in charge of wireless communication had suggested prohibiting Matsushita mobile phones from accessing Chinese communication networks, but that idea was not acted on, the official said.
Beijing Matsushita Communications Equipment Co., one of Matsushita's joint ventures in China, said it had not been officially informed of the ban, the China Daily said.