Status: 01.12.2021 12:34 p.m.
By 2025, 85 percent of Chinese citizens are expected to speak Mandarin. The government argues that this is necessary to meet the demands of the modern economy. It acts aggressively against minority languages.
China launches an aggressive campaign to promote the Chinese language Mandarin. The State Council of the People’s Republic announced that 85 percent of Chinese citizens would speak Mandarin by 2025.
The move is likely to put Chinese regional languages and dialects such as Cantonese and Hokkien under further pressure. Minority languages such as Tibetan, Mongolian and Uighur could also be pushed back.
“Requirements of the Modern Economy”
According to an order from the State Council, the use of Mandarin remains “unbalanced and inadequate” and must be encouraged in order to meet the needs of the modern economy. Along with the 2025 target, the policy aims to make Mandarin practically the universal language by 2035, including in rural areas and among ethnic minorities.
The policy of linguistic standardization is supported by legal requirements. The order calls for increased oversight to “ensure that the national common spoken and written language is used as the official language of government agencies and as the basic language of schools, news and publications, radio, film and television, public services and other areas”.
It also appeals to “strengthen the international status and influence of Chinese” in the academic world, international organizations and at global gatherings.
Minority languages under pressure
Critics complain that these reforms have progressively undermined the role of minority languages. The preference for Mandarin over other languages sparked protests in Inner Mongolia last year when the Mongolian language was replaced by Mandarin as the language of instruction.
The ruling Communist Party rejects such protests as a form of separatism and ruthlessly suppresses them. It takes the position that linguistic conformity is necessary for the benefit of the economy and national unity.
Government efforts to promote Mandarin through the global network of the Confucius Institutes – a state-run Chinese educational organization – have been a source of controversy in the past and have been criticized by critics for trying to advance the Communist Party’s agenda and discuss issues such as the human rights record to prevent.