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Unified Language Important to National Unity: Legislators
The adoption of the rule of law regarding the promotion and popularization of the common language is of great importance for safeguarding national unity, strengthening solidarity between people of different ethnic groups and boosting social and economic development.
This was a call made by members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) at a meeting in Beijing Wednesday to discuss a draft of the law on the national common language. The lawmakers reached a consensus on the promulgation of such a law.
Li Peng, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the meeting.
In the course of the discussion, the legislators showed their concern over widespread errors in the use of Putonghua, or standard Chinese, especially in advertisements and other business activities.
Fearing that such errors may have a negative effect on young people, they proposed that the teaching of Putonghua and standard characters be compulsory in all schools.
Since the Chinese language is also used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Singapore, as well as other parts of the world where overseas Chinese live, the State Language Working Committee under the Ministry of Education should make efforts to spread Chinese worldwide, according to the legislators.
Furthermore, some of the speakers suggested that overseas Chinese be consulted before publishing any new simplified characters to avoid misunderstandings.
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