Discussion and adoption of Tongyong Pinyin, like many other initiatives in Taiwan, quickly acquired a partisan tone turning on issues of Chinese versus Taiwanese identity.

[19] Officials who identified more strongly with Chinese culture, such as the Kuomintang (KMT), saw no reason to introduce a new system unique to Taiwan if Hanyu Pinyin had already gained international acceptance.

Each side accused the other of basing its preference on anti-China or pro-China sentiment rather than an objective discussion of community goals.

[20] In early October 2000, the Mandarin Commission of the Ministry of Education proposed to use Tongyong Pinyin as the national standard.

Education Minister Ovid Tzeng submitted a draft of the Taiwanese romanization in late October to the Executive Yuan, but the proposal was rejected.

In November 2000, Tzeng unsuccessfully suggested that the government adopt Hanyu Pinyin with some modifications for local dialects.

Street signs in most areas use Tongyong Pinyin,[citation needed] including the cities of Kaohsiung, Tainan, and surrounding counties.

On 17 September 2008, the Ministry of Education announced that the government standard for romanization would be switched to Hanyu Pinyin nationwide, effective 1 January 2009.

The Tongyong Pinyin system also exists in a Taiwanese Hokkien phonetic symbol version, Daighi tongiong pingim, which lacks f but adds bh.

[26] In two cases (si and ci) the same Latin spelling denotes different syllables depending on the transcription system.