Chinese Lawmakers to Further Revise Draft Law on National Common LanguageChina's top legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), is scheduled to further revise a draft law on national common language, so as to standardize language use and rectify the phenomenon of using non-standardized language.The NPC Law Committee today submitted a report on the revision of the draft law on national common language to the 17th session of the Ninth NPC Standing Committee, which opened this morning in Beijing. The law committee proposes to revise the sixth clause of the draft law as "the state promulgates the norms and standards of national common language, administers the public use of the national common language, and promotes the standardization, enrichment and development of national common language." Some NPC Standing Committee members and experts suggests that the draft law should have stricter stipulations on the national common language while the language is used in government documents, education agencies, news media, and publications, but have loose stipulations on oral language. The law committee proposes that "broadcasters, actors, teachers, and government staff should reach the State-required grades in terms of mandarin." |
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