The primary language spoken in China is Mandarin Chinese, also known as Putonghua or Standard Chinese. It is the most widely spoken language in the world, with over a billion native speakers. Mandarin is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family and has several dialects, but Standard Mandarin is based on the Beijing dialect and is the official language of China. Its writing system uses Chinese characters, which are logographic and represent words or morphemes. The promotion of Mandarin has been vital in fostering national unity and communication across China’s diverse ethnic and linguistic communities.