[2] Taiwan was not shaded red as at the time of printing, it was (and remains so as of 2024[update]) under the control of the Republic of China instead of the PRC.

The official reason given for the withdrawal of the stamp was that the Spratly and Paracel Islands were missing from the map, as well as the borders with Mongolia, Bhutan, and Myanmar being incorrectly drawn.

[1] The stamp had been distributed for less than half a day when an editor at China Cartographic Publishing House noticed the problem with Taiwan and reported it to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

As a result, all Chinese post offices had to stop selling the stamp and return all copies, with only a small quantity making it to private collectors.

[3] More recent auction realisations have been lower at £31050 in December 2010 (Stanley Gibbons), HK$747,500 (£60,300) at InterAsia's September 2011 sale,[1] US$57,000 in 2014 in Germany, US$445,000 in 2014 in Hong Kong.