To everyone's surprise, soon afterward a spokesman for the UN Secretariat declared that he knew of no such plan, because since 1971, when the People's Republic of China took over the Republic of China's seat at the UN, all Chinese-language documents and publications produced by the UN had been written in simplified characters. Reports that the UN uses both types of Chinese characters were wrong.
不料後來經過查證，聯合國秘書處相關官員表示，並未聽過所謂「2008 年停用正體字」的說法，因為自從中華民國於 1971 年退出聯合國、由中華人民共和國取代後，聯合國的中文文件及各種出版品隨即改採簡體字，並無同時使用兩種字體的情形。