From AFP, via Tehran Times:
A recent survey has revealed that nearly half of China’s population cannot speak the official dialect, mandarin, despite decades of efforts by the communist government, state media said Sunday.
The National Language Commission’s survey also found that many of the 53 percent of China’s 1.3 billion people who can speak mandarin are not frequent mandarin users, preferring their local dialect, the Xinhua news agency said.
The Xinhua report is here.
