The legal status of the language in China.

Abstract

The article analyzes the status of the Chinese language, in particular its supra-dialectal version of Putonghua, legally positioned as the state (official) language of the PRC. Based on various approaches to the concept of the official language during the historical development of China, the logic of the country's leadership in building language policy and regulating the role of language as an ethno-consolidating factor in a multinational state is shown. Based on the actual legislation, the areas of compulsory use of Putonghua are considered, an assessment is made of China’s modern language policy in terms of determining the status of the state language and writing in a multi-ethnic state, it is shown that the active campaign carried out by the authorities to spread Putonghua will inevitably lead to a reduction in the number ofspeakers of other languages and dialects through out the country.