People's Republic of China the Law on the Common Language of the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China the Law on the Common Language of the People's Republic of China

(Adopted at the 18th Session of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on October 31, 2000; promulgated by Order No. 37 of the President of the People's Republic of China on October 31, 2000, effective as of January 1, 2001)

Table of Contents

Chapter I: General Provisions

Chapter II The Use of the Standard Spoken and Written Language of the State

Chapter III: Management and Supervision

Chapter IV: Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I: General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution in order to promote the standardization, standardization and healthy development of the standard spoken and written language of the State, to enable the standard spoken and written language of the State to play a better role in social life, and to promote economic and cultural exchanges among all ethnic groups and regions.

Article 2 The standard spoken and written language of the State as used in this Law is Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters.

Article 3 The State shall promote Putonghua and standardize Chinese characters.

Article 4 Citizens have the right to learn and use the standard spoken and written language of the State.

The State provides conditions for citizens to learn and use the standard spoken and written language of the State.

Local people's governments at all levels and their relevant departments shall take measures to promote Putonghua and standardize Chinese characters.

Article 5: The use of the standard spoken and written language of the State shall be conducive to the preservation of national sovereignty and national dignity, to national unity and ethnic unity, and to the building of socialist material and spiritual civilizations.

Article 6 The State shall promulgate the norms and standards for the standard spoken and written language, manage the social application of the standard spoken and written language, support the teaching and scientific research of the standard spoken and written language, and promote the standardization, enrichment, and development of the standard spoken and written language.

Article 7 The State shall reward organizations and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to the cause of the standard spoken and written language of the State.

Article 8 All nationalities have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages.

The use of the spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities shall be in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Constitution, the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy and other laws.

Chapter II The Use of the Standard Spoken and Written Language of the State

Article 9: State organs use Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters as official language. Except as otherwise provided by law.

Article 10: Schools and other educational institutions use Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters as the basic educational and teaching language. Except as otherwise provided by law.

Schools and other educational institutions teach Mandarin and standardize Chinese characters through Chinese language courses. The Chinese textbooks used shall conform to the norms and standards of the national standard spoken and written language.

Article 11 Publications in Chinese shall conform to the norms and standards of the standard spoken and written language of the State.

Where it is necessary to use a foreign language in a Chinese publication, the necessary annotations shall be made in the standard language Chinese of the state.

Article 12: Radio and television stations use Putonghua as the basic language for broadcasting.

Where it is necessary to use a foreign Chinese language as the language used for broadcasting, it must be approved by the radio and television department of the State Council.

Article 13: The public service industry is to standardize Chinese characters as the basic service words. Where signboards, advertisements, notices, signs, etc. use foreign languages and use Chinese at the same time due to the needs of public services, standardized Chinese characters shall be used.

Advocate the use of Mandarin as the service language in the public service industry.

Article 14 In the following circumstances, the standard spoken and written language of the State shall be used as the basic language and words:

(1) Terminology and words used in radio, film, and television;

(2) Words used for facilities in public places;

(3) Words used in signboards and advertisements;

(4) The name of the enterprise or public institution;

(5) The packaging and description of the goods sold within the territory.

Article 15: The standard spoken and written language of the State used in information processing and information technology products shall conform to the norms and standards of the State.

Article 16: In the relevant provisions of this chapter, dialects may be used in the following circumstances:

(1) Where it is truly necessary for the staff of state organs to be used in the performance of their official duties;

(2) Broadcasting terms approved by the State Council's radio and television department or the provincial-level radio and television department;

(3) Where it is necessary to be used in art forms such as opera, film, and television;

(4) It is truly necessary for publication, teaching, or research.

Article 17 In the relevant provisions of this Chapter, traditional Chinese characters and variant characters may be retained or used under the following circumstances:

(1) Cultural relics and historic sites;

(2) Variant characters in the surname;

(3) Calligraphy, seal carving and other works of art;

(4) Handwritten inscriptions and signboards;

(5) Where it is necessary for publication, teaching, or research;

(6) Special circumstances approved by the relevant departments of the State Council.

Article 18 The standard spoken and written language of the State shall use the Hanyu Pinyin Scheme as a spelling and phonetic tool.

The Hanyu Pinyin Scheme is a unified specification for the spelling of the Roman alphabet of Chinese names, place names, and Chinese documents, and is used in areas where Chinese characters are inconvenient or cannot be used.

Primary education shall be taught in Chinese Pinyin.

Article 19 The staff of all posts that use Putonghua as the working language shall have the ability to speak Putonghua.

The Putonghua proficiency of announcers, program hosts, film and television drama actors, teachers, and staff of state organs who use Putonghua as their working language shall separately meet the grading standards provided by the state; For those who have not yet reached the Putonghua level standards stipulated by the state, training will be conducted on a case-by-case basis.

Article 20 Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters shall be taught in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language.

Chapter III: Management and Supervision

Article 21 The State Council's language department shall be responsible for planning, guiding, managing, and supervising the work on the standard spoken and written language of the State.

The relevant departments of the State Council shall manage the use of the standard spoken and written language of the State in their respective systems.

Article 22 Local language departments and other relevant departments shall manage and supervise the use of the standard spoken and written language of the State within their respective administrative regions.

Article 23 The administrative departments for industry and commerce of the people's governments at or above the county level shall manage and supervise the names of enterprises, the names of commodities and the terms and phrases used in advertisements in accordance with law.

Article 24 The language department of the State Council shall promulgate the Putonghua proficiency test grading standards.

Article 25 The translation of foreign names, geographical names and other proper nouns and scientific and technical terms into the standard spoken and written language of the State shall be examined and approved by the language work department of the State Council or other relevant departments.

Article 26: Where the relevant provisions of Chapter II of this Law are violated by not using the spoken and written language in accordance with the norms and standards of the standard spoken and written language of the State, citizens may submit criticisms and suggestions.

Where the language used by personnel as provided for in paragraph 2 of article 19 of this Law violates the relevant provisions of Chapter II of this Law, the relevant units shall conduct criticism and education of the directly responsible personnel; and where corrections are refused, the relevant units are to handle it.

Where the facilities, signboards, and advertising words used in urban public places violate the relevant provisions of Chapter II of this Law, the relevant administrative departments shall order corrections; and where corrections are refused, a warning is to be given, and corrections are to be urged to be made within a set period of time.

Article 27 Whoever violates the provisions of this Law by interfering with others' study and use of the standard spoken and written language of the state shall be ordered by the relevant administrative department to make corrections within a specified period of time and given a warning.

Chapter IV: Supplementary Provisions

Article 28: This Law shall come into force on January 1, 2001.