Taiwan removes references to China in military codes
Taipei (AsiaNews/Agencies) Taiwan's defence ministry is the first public body to comply with the government's 'name rectification' campaign, which calls for government-controlled institutions to remove references to China.
Starting this Saturday, the telephone switchboards of various military units and departments will no longer use codenames identified with Chinese provinces and cities, information warfare Vice-Commander Major-General Tseng Chang-tuan said yesterday. Instead, numbers will be used.
General Tseng said the decision had nothing to do with the so-called "de-sinoisation" policy, but was required to fit in with the automation of the military's telecommunications system. It is simpler and more convenient to use numerical codenames.
Hitherto, the codenames used by operators of the Defence Ministry's military telephone switchboards at the moment were "Jiangsu" and "Shanghai". The army's 10th Unit was known as "Hunan", while the codename for the military command in the defence outpost of Kinmen was "Xikang". The military command on the resort island of Penghu was called "Dongting", the codename for the navy headquarters was "Guangdong", and that of the air force was "Chongqing".
The use of the titles of mainland cities and provinces had drawn protests from pro-independence activists, who had criticised the Defence Ministry for identifying military units with mainland cities and provinces.
"It is absurd to use those names," said Tzong Chai Tung-jung, a lawmaker for the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, who suggests replacing them with the names of Taiwanese places.
General Tseng said that using numbers was good enough. The ministry had been gradually replacing the military's manual switchboards with a digital system since 1996.
"Unlike the old system, the new system covers the whole of Taiwan as well as the offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu. There is no need to use the place names to identify military units," he said.
Defence officials said the ministry used codenames with mainland references in the past to confuse mainland intelligence agencies, but technological advances meant there was no longer any need for those codenames.
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02/07/2020 09:59
