The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Communication and Culture Committee director Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) yesterday said Ma’s idea that both sides jointly edit and compile a “Zhonghua Dictionary” (中華大辭典) will be included on the list of items to be discussed during the upcoming KMT-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forum next month.
Lee said that the KMT-CCP forum will be conducted in an open setting and that it did not have an official capacity.
However, if both sides of the strait reach a consensus on the proposal, the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation would be entrusted by the government to sign an agreement with its Chinese counterpart, Lee said.
Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday reiterated that he would not promote simplified Chinese characters in Taiwan, adding that his proposal that people should be able to read traditional Chinese characters but write simplified ones was not political.
The proposal has been misconstrued as promoting simplified Chinese, he said yesterday while having lunch with members of the National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools at the Presidential Office.
Ma said that during his stint as Taipei mayor, he vetoed a proposal to print tourism pamphlets in simplified Chinese for Chinese tourists. He thought the best way to address the problem was to print comparison charts for them.
Ma yesterday said the time was right for “all Chinese” to ponder the future of the Chinese language as some Chinese have expressed the hope to see the abolition of simplified Chinese.
Ma said that Pan Qinglin (潘慶林), a member of the consultative committee that advises China’s government, has submitted a proposal calling for a return to the traditional script within 10 years.
Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional Chinese but have higher literacy rates than China, he said, disproving Beijing’s argument that using simplified characters allows more people to achieve literacy.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
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