The Ministry of Education's decision on the standardized Mandarin Romanization system for use in Taiwan is to be made by the education minister today, before being passed to the Executive Yuan for review and a final decision.
The minister's decision, whatever it may be, is sure to spark further debate.
The controversy concerning the official system for the Romanization of Mandarin has simmered for weeks after the Ministry of Education's Mandarin Promotion Council (MPC) decided on Oct. 7 to recommend Tongyong Pinyin (通用拼音), a system created by a group of Taiwanese scholars who consider it more suitable for use in Taiwan than Hanyu Pinyin (漢語拼音), which is the predominant system in China and other Mandarin-speaking countries.
"The decision will not be made until tomorrow, as I am still pondering the pros and cons of both systems and awaiting the result of the surveys conducted by local governments," Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) said yesterday, refuting stories in yesterday's national newspapers, which said Tzeng had decided to choose Hanyu Pinyin over Tongyong.
Numerous reports have speculated that Tzeng might present the case for both systems to the executive branch because, on the one hand, he has repeatedly made his preference for the Hanyu system known to the public due to its prevalence in the international community, while, on the other, he would not wish to be disrespectful to the MPC's choice of Tongyong.
Tzeng yesterday denied such speculation, saying he would only present one system for the Executive Yuan to determine and that he would provide a detailed explanation of his choice.
Responding to the media's questioning as to whether he would choose Hanyu, Tzeng replied by saying merely that Hanyu was still on his mind.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS