(Photo/Sina Weibo)

A Chinese publishing house has apologized for mistakenly printing a portrait of George Marshall, a renowned military leader during World War II, rather than one of General Joseph Stilwell, on the cover of a newly released book.

The mistake went viral after Harbin Publishing House launched its new book, titled “Diary of Stilwell: Stories Between Me and Chiang Kai-shek,” in July.

The book's cover features the black sketch of of a military man against a white background, but the sketch is not of glasses-wearing “Vinegar Joe” General Stilwell. Instead, it portrays the U.S. chief of staff during World War II, George Marshall.

(File photo of General Joseph Stilwell)

“Through Weibo, we discovered that there were errors on the cover of the book ‘Diary of Stilwell.’ We hereby apologize to our readers. We accept absolute responsibility no matter what caused the errors, and we will make a timely rectification,” stated Harbin Publishing House on its official Weibo on Oct. 19.

(File photo of the Collection Essays of Kang Youwei)

Another similar error occurred in 2009 with the publication of “The Collected Essays of Kang Youwei” by Thread-Binding Books Publishing House. A supposed portrait of Kang actually featured Liang Qichao – Kang’s student, who did not even resemble his mentor. The book remains on sale and is priced at 30 RMB. The publishing house has not made any official comment in response to the error.

(File photo of Kang Youwei)

Printing mistakes are hard to avoid entirely in the publishing industry, but some Chinese publishing houses display a lack of professionalism when they use incorrect pictures, or even photoshopped images.

The Post & Telecom Press also apologized after one of its publications, an illustrated handbook, was found to be using the head of an elephant photoshopped onto what looked like a dolphin's body in an illustration for a walrus. 

(File photo)