Taiwan may drop Mandarin as sole official language

TAIPEI - TAIWAN may abandon its long-standing policy of recognising Mandarin as the island's only official language, the Premier said yesterday, in a step likely to irritate China.

Premier Su Tseng-chang said the Cabinet is examining a draft for a National Language Development Act to promote the use of local dialects and prohibit linguistic discrimination.

'Taiwan is a plural society, and all languages should have equal standing and be respected and supported,' he said, indicating an intention to confer equal status on the local Minnan dialect - often dubbed 'Taiwanese' - as well as the Hakka dialect.

'We want to give weaker languages a chance to develop,' government spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said.

The National Language Development Bill, first drafted two years ago, is being debated in Parliament this week.

Such a move would likely be criticised by China, which sees Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes efforts by the island's leadership to loosen cultural and other bonds.

The Minnan dialect is widely spoken by descendants of Chinese immigrants who arrived on the island in the 17th and 18th centuries, but is less well known to the families of people who fled to the island in 1949 after the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) forces at the hands of the Communists.

The earlier Chinese immigrant descendants form the core constituency of Mr Su's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is in favour of Taiwan's independence.

In contrast, most 1949 immigrant families support the KMT and favour eventual unification with Beijing.

Mr Su's announcement is consistent with recent efforts to distance Taiwan from the Chinese mainland in the run-up to December's legislative elections and March 2008 presidential poll.

Other DPP moves included stripping the name 'China' from several state-run companies over the past month and attacking the legacy of the late strongman Chiang.

President Chen Shui-bian often uses the Minnan dialect in speeches, particularly when appealing directly to his core DPP constituency.

Mandarin was made China's official language in 1919 and achieved the same status in Taiwan when the Japanese were forced from the island following their defeat in World War II.