When Apple released iOS 13.1.1 in late September, it appears to have dropped the Taiwan flag from the emoji keyboard for users that have their iOS region set to Hong Kong or Macau, as noticed by the blog Hiraku and later corroborated by Hong Kong Free Press.
The Taiwan flag emoji isn’t completely gone — apparently, it will still display in apps and on websites, and you can even still “type” it by either typing “Taiwan” in English and selecting it from Apple’s next-word predictions or by copying and pasting it.
Regardless, the removal is being treated by activists and pro-Hong Kong supporters as another attempt from mainland China to establish sovereignty over areas it considers under its control. Because of Taiwan’s political status,…