30% of Chinese cannot speak Mandarin

About 30% of the Chinese population cannot speak Mandarin, the official language of China, said the ministry of education on Thursday.

Although the remaining population can communicate in Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, a large number of them do not speak it well, reports Xinhua.

Ministry spokesperson Xu Mei said the country still needed to invest in promoting Mandarin.

The government has been holding a campaign to promote Mandarin in the third week of September every year since 1998.

This year, the ministry would focus on the remote countryside and areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, Xu said.