BEIJING — China has dismissed White House criticism of its “Orwellian” demand that foreign airlines not refer to self-ruled Taiwan as a country, saying companies operating in China must respect its sovereignty.

“Whatever the U.S. says will never change the objective fact that there is only one China in the world and the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions are an inalienable part of China’s territory,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a statement Sunday posted online.

“Foreign enterprises operating in China should respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, abide by China’s law and respect the national sentiment of the Chinese people,” Geng said.

Unlike self-ruled Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are Chinese territories operating with some degree of autonomy.

Taiwan’s independence-leaning president, Tsai Ing-wen, weighed in with a tweet, saying, “We call on all businesses to resist #China’s efforts to mischaracterize #Taiwan.”

The government of Chinese President Xi Jinping has been increasingly assertive about its claims to Taiwan, which it has threatened to invade to bring under its control. Delta Air Lines, hotel operator Marriott, fashion brand Zara and other companies have apologized to China for referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet as countries on websites or promotional material.

The White House on Saturday condemned China’s efforts to control how U.S. airlines refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, saying the push to make them comply with Chinese standards is “Orwellian nonsense.”

China’s Civil Aviation Administration has demanded the change from 36 foreign airlines, including some American carriers, according to the White House.

President Donald Trump will “stand up for Americans resisting efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to impose Chinese political correctness on American companies and citizens,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

“This is Orwellian nonsense and part of a growing trend by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its political views on American citizens and private companies,” Sanders said. She said the Trump administration is calling on China “to stop threatening and coercing American carriers and citizens.”

Australia called demand ‘inappropriate’

The harshly worded statement came as a high-level trade delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin returned from negotiations in China and as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with a member of the Chinese Communist Party leadership.

In their telephone conversation on Saturday, Pompeo and Politburo member Yang Jiechi “affirmed the importance of a constructive, results-oriented bilateral relationship,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Australian carrier Qantas is among the airlines told to change how they refer to Taiwan, prompting comments from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop that any such pressure is inappropriate.

“The terms that private companies choose to list destinations are a matter for them,” Bishop said in comments provided by her office. “There should be no pressure from governments, whether ours or others, that threatens the ordinary operations of business.”

Bishop said she hoped the current understanding with China could continue and that her department would continue to liaise closely with Qantas.

It wasn’t clear what China had demanded Qantas do, or what the penalties for non-compliance might be.

As China leverages the power of its massive domestic market to bend foreign companies to its political will, its retribution has sometimes targeted those firms’ online presence.

Regulators ordered Marriott to close its China-based website and app for one week after criticizing the company for referring to Tibet and Taiwan as countries in a customer survey.

The moves come as China is stepping up efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically. The Dominican Republic switched its official recognition from Taipei to Beijing last week, leaving the island with just 19 diplomatic allies.

In a further move, the ministry spokesman Geng indicated Monday that Beijing is blocking Taiwan’s observer status at the United Nations’ World Health Assembly for a second straight year because of Tsai’s refusal to endorse the “one China principle” acknowledging Taiwan as part of China.

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Tim Hortons plans to renovate most of its Canadian restaurants over the next several years in what some franchisees say is another “ill-conceived” move that will cost individual restaurant owners about $450,000.

The coffee-and-doughnut chain and its restaurant owners will invest $700 million to gussy up almost all its Canadian locations over the next four years, the brand said.

The new restaurants will have lighter, more natural looking exteriors, and feature upgraded, open-concept seating, the Restaurant Brands International-owned chain said in a statement.

“The expectations of our guests are evolving,” said Alex Macedo, the brand’s president, in a statement explaining the design change.

Franchisee association urged members not to agree

The decision has generated more animosity between the chain and an unsanctioned franchisee group, the Great White North Franchisee Association.

Earlier this month, the company held a call with franchisees explaining they wanted each restaurant owner to spend about $450,000 to renovate their stores, the GWNFA’s board of directors said in a letter to its members.

The company said Tuesday that costs will be split with restaurant owners on the same proportions as has historically been the case, but declined to specify what those proportions are.

The board acknowledged many of its members “will have problems getting the finances in place to carry out these renovations” and called on the company to show a full costing of the renovation program.

It advised members, which make up about half of all of Tim Hortons Canadian franchisees, not to sign or agree to anything until more details are disclosed.

“This is just one more in the string of ill-conceived programs brought forward by a group of executives who do not understand foodservice, franchise operations or marketing,” the letter reads.

Restaurant Brands International, “wants to fix a problem it cannot solve, mainly lack of sales, by getting us to spend money while they contribute very little,” the letter said.

Tim Hortons recorded a fifth consecutive quarter of sluggish sales in mid-February, according to RBI’s most recent quarterly earnings report.

The GWNFA formed about a year ago to give a voice to frustrated restaurant owners and fight against what they say is mismanagement of the chain by its corporate parent, RBI, known for drastic cost-cutting measures at the fast-food outlets its acquires.

The two groups have taken their battle to the courts with multiple lawsuits, and most recently entered a showdown over how to handle Ontario’s roughly 20 per cent minimum wage increase. The GWNFA accuses RBI of failing to help franchisees offset the increased labour costs through a 10 per cent price hike on all menu items.

RBI did not agree to the price hikes, but called the actions of some franchisees in the province who clawed back employee benefits, like paid breaks, reckless and completely unacceptable.

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TORONTO — Canada Goose is flocking to China with a plan to open two stores in Beijing and Hong Kong, e-commerce operations in partnership with Alibaba Group and a regional head office in Shanghai.

The Toronto-based luxury retailer that is known for its high-end parkas says the stores and e-commerce operation will launch this fall.

Canada Goose President and Chief Executive Officer Dani Reiss says the company is expanding in the country because it has seen demand from Chinese consumers for years.

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The e-commerce operations will be launched in conjunction with Alibaba Group’s online business-to-consumer platform.

It will open bricks-and-mortar locations in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Canada Goose already has flagship stores in Toronto, Calgary, New York, London, Tokyo, Chicago and Boston.

TORONTO — The Toronto real estate market appears to be stabilizing following months of payback after last year’s frenzied pace of sales and skyrocketing prices, but home sales sunk to their lowest level since 2009 last month.

The Toronto Real Estate Board revealed Thursday that the market saw 7,792 transactions in April, a 32.1 per cent drop from the same period last year when 11,468 homes were sold. Observers believe last April may have been the peak of the market as activity soared ahead of the Ontario government’s package of measures to cool the market that included taxes on vacant properties and a non-resident speculation tax.

Sales were also down 1.6 per cent from March, while home prices fell 0.2 per cent compared to the month before.

The price decline was much larger on a year-over-year basis. The average home fell by 12.4 per cent from last year, to $804,584 in April.

TREB described the month-over-month changes as “minimal” and said sales trends have “flattened out” from the steeper drop-off seen in January and February — an indication that the market could be slowly climbing out of the sluggish state it was in at the start of the year and correcting the overheated conditions that pushed the province and mortgage regulators to introduce cooling measures last year.

Activity dropped off in the opening months of the year after cooling pressure at the federal level, including a financial stress test for buyers implemented Jan. 1 for federally-regulated lenders and increases in both variable and fixed-rate mortgage rates as a result of moves by the Bank of Canada and fluctuations in the bond markets.

“While average selling prices have not climbed back to last year’s record peak, April’s price level represents a substantial gain over the past decade,” said TREB president Tim Syrianos.

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However, he said the MLS home price index composite benchmark, which strips out the impact of changes in the mix of home sales, was down 5.2 per cent compared with a year ago and the number of new listings in April had plunged to 16,273, a 24.6 per cent decrease from the 21,571 listings seen last year at the same time.

BMO Economics analyst Priscilla Thiagamoorthy declared the market “soggy,” but she said the balance between sales and new listings “looks roughly stable.”

Sales in Canada’s priciest market, Vancouver, also fell significantly last month.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said Wednesday that this was its weakest April for single-family home sales in nearly 30 years. Only 171 detached homes in the city were sold that month and regional sales fell to a 17-year low for April. The board said 2,579 detached properties, townhouses and condominiums sold last month in Metro Vancouver, down 27.4 per cent from April 2017.

In the Greater Toronto Area, York Region took the most significant hit. TREB numbers show the region saw the biggest year-over-year price declines in April.

Those kinds of drops “mask the fact that market conditions should support moderate increases in home prices as we move through the second half of the year, particularly for condominium apartments and higher density low-rise home types,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis.

His comments are in line with the rising prevalence of condo sales, which are increasingly being eyed by prospective buyers, searching for moderately-priced housing options in a market where affordable housing is more of struggle to find than in other Canadian cities.

Tax relief for homebuyers?

TREB pleaded for parties running in the Ontario’s June election to turn their attention to housing, despite the Liberal government’ newly-enacted measures last April that included taxes on vacant properties and a non-resident speculation tax, as well as the introduction by mortgage regulators of a stress test for uninsured borrowers at the start of the year.

“We believe the next step should be tax relief, especially from land transfer taxes, both provincial and the Toronto land transfer tax, and efforts to facilitate an increase in the supply of missing middle housing that fills the gap between single family homes and high rises,” said Syrianos.

“Furthermore, we believe that any attempt to increase the Toronto land transfer tax should require approval from the provincial government, given the significance of Toronto’s economy to the province and the connections between the Toronto real estate market and that of the broader GTA.”

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