Government and Policy

SARFT refutes ban on English abbreviations

By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-15 13:31

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said Wednesday its notice of avoiding using certain English abbreviations in Chinese programs was misunderstood, the Beijing Times reported Thursday.

Gao Changli, a deputy inspector from SARFT said their intention was to standardize the use of foreign words. "We are not banning the use of English abbreviations; we just want to standardize the usage and we don't rule out alien culture," Gao said.

China is using more and more foreign words, which would have a bad influence on the development of the country's radio and television and lead to a lack of standardization in the use of Chinese if they are not standardized, according to Gao.

Gao said SARFT would stick to keeping the purity of the Chinese language and called for other TV stations to follow China Central Television on this matter.

Gao also expected that some related government departments could take the lead in establishing the standard for foreign word usages.