The Trump administration has urged United Airlines and other US carriers to ignore Chinese demands over how they refer to Taiwan, in the latest example of mounting friction between the US and China.

US officials have asked United, American Airlines and Delta not to comply with a Chinese demand to write “Taiwan, China” instead of Taiwan on their websites and maps, according to five people familiar with the issue. The request came after China ordered 36 foreign airlines to remove any language which implied that Taiwan, a democratically ruled independent island claimed by Beijing, was not part of China.

The White House last month described the Chinese order as “Orwellian nonsense”. Trump administration officials have urged the airlines to push back and to tell China, which has extended the deadline until late June, that the Taiwan issue should be handled by the US and Chinese governments.