The UN has rejected an application from Taiwan to have a collection of oracle bone scripts listed as a world documentary heritage item, a UN official said on Friday.
The collection, preserved by the Taipei-based Academia Sinica's Institute of History and Philology, was not nominated for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register for next year because China had already made two submissions, the maximum number allowed by each country, according to Joie Springer, an official at the Secretariat of the Memory of the World Programme.
Taiwan is not recognized as a country by the UN and is not a member of the organization.
Springer suggested that Taiwan could consider making a joint submission with China in the future.
The program, established by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1992, is aimed at the preservation and dissemination of valuable archive holdings and library collections worldwide.
Every even-numbered year, the program accepts up to two submissions from each country. The program's International Advisory Committee then meets the following year to decide on the new items to be included on the register.
The next committee meeting is scheduled for next year, which means that new submissions will not be accepted again until 2012.
The two submissions by China that have been nominated for inclusion are Ben Cao Gang Mu (本草綱目, Compendium of Materia Medica) and Huang Di Nei Jing (黃帝內經, Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon).
National Cultural Association secretary-general Yang Tu (楊渡) said in Taipei that he was surprised Taiwan's submission was not nominated this year.
On the suggestion of making a joint submission with China, Yang said the issue would require careful deliberation in light of the sensitive nature of cross-strait relations.
Institute of History and Philology director Huang Chin-shing (黃進興) expressed regret over the outcome, which he blamed on China's obstruction.
The oracle bone scripts are ancient Chinese characters inscribed on oracle bones — animal bones or turtle shells used in divination in China between 1400BC and 1100BC. The script is considered a forerunner to modern Chinese characters.
To date, about 5,000 oracle bone characters have been identified, although only 1,500 of them are recognizable. Academia Sinica holds the world’s largest collection of oracle bone scripts.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS