President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan is a determined man with a mission. This time he has targeted the subtle differences in the languages used by his country and mainland China.

In a speech delivered at the opening of the Sixth International Conference on Internet Chinese Education in Taipei, Ma stressed he had long been “deeply passionate” about traditional Chinese characters and was misconstrued as espousing Taiwan adopt the simplified Chinese form.

According to the United Daily News, President Ma reiterated that this was a major misunderstanding, and given Chinese language instruction in Taiwan had always been taught using traditional characters, there was no question of change. The president said his idea, which applies to overseas Chinese schools, was aimed at Chinese mainland scholars and hoped more mainlanders would learn to recognize traditional forms.

In addition, Ma said he advocates a collaborate private-sector effort on both sides of the strait to compile a grand Chinese dictionary, displaying both traditional and simplified versions for each character to enhance mutual understanding between Taiwan and the mainland. Next month’s Kuomintang-Chinese Communist Party forum on cross-strait cultural, economic and trade affairs in Changsha, Hunan Province should provide an excellent opportunity to discuss this topic, he added.

The president stated that written language and culture are inseparable. He said in his role as president of the Republic of China, and head of the National Cultural Association, he had a responsibility to work for the preservation and prosperity of Chinese culture, and must take action on this behalf.

He also pointed out that traditional forms of Chinese characters, with a 2,000-year plus history, had advantages that simplified forms could not supplant.

Every day nearly 30 million people study Chinese and although there is a considerable gap in the number of people learning simplified versus traditional forms, there are increasing calls on the Chinese mainland to abandon the former, Ma said. Many advocating this move were scholars of high standing, he added.

The president believes advocating the use of traditional Chinese characters is not a matter of engaging in one-upmanship with the Chinese mainland. More and more people on the mainland view this issue from purely a cultural perspective, Ma said.

Citing mainland author Wang Gan, the president said the writer feels that simplified characters are “knock-off” versions of Chinese characters, because the simplified versions are “nonmainstream, crude and only have economic utility.”

Ma said he discovered recently that mainland scholars have advocated “recognizing traditional and writing simplified” forms, and hoped that when teaching elementary students simplified characters, comparison tables of traditional vs. simplified forms could be included in textbooks to help children recognize traditional forms.

Coming on the heels of increased cooperation between the two countries, the president is determined that harmonious coexistence with his heavily-muscled neighbor must prevail.

In recent times, mainland tourists were visiting the island nation at the rate of 3,000 daily. The sky appears to be the limit for Taiwan’s fledgling cross-strait health-examination services market following the successful visit of a 30-plus group of mainland Chinese health tourists.

On June 22, the visitors from the Chinese city of Guangzhou underwent health examinations and received advanced services such as MRI exams, and CT and PET scans at Cathay General Hospital, Changhua Christian Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, and Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital.

Regular direct flights between Taiwan and the mainland are set to begin on Aug. 31, with the airfare reduced by 15 percent and tickets valid for seven days, one month, or an entire year.

During the third round of talks between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and its mainland counterpart, the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait, the two sides reached an agreement that cross-strait charter flights would be changed to regular services. The number of flights available would be increased to 270 per week, up from the current 108.

Statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs released on June 23 reveal that May’s export orders hit a seven-month high of $25.17 billion despite falling 20.14 percent year-on-year with the mainland and Hong Kong together accounting for 28.1 percent of export orders received by Taiwan enterprises, constituting the largest source for the island.

While Ma’s domestic detractors fear that such moves fall into the mainland’s grand designs of ending Taiwan’s democratic freedom and sovereignty, it would appear that for now the right steps are being taken to ensure just the opposite.