Could the Chinese language not be greatly simplified by keeping only phonetic symbols and using them like a syllabary? Most Chinese characters comprise two symbols, one encodes phonetic information and the other semantic. Dispensing with semantic symbols would result in a bunch of phonetic symbols akin to a alphabet (or more precisely a syllabary). Would the conversion of the Chinese writing system into a syllabary in this way be:

1.  feasible
2. beneficial

(I appreciate that in practice the Chinese are quite happy with their writing sytem as it is, I just mean principle).

Thanks!