CHINESE LAW AND GOVERNMENT

2016, VOL. 48, NO. 4, 305309

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00094609.2016.1118313

Measures of Fujian Province for Implementing the Law

of the Peoples Republic of China on the National
Common Language
Passed on May 26, 2006, by the Twenty-Third Meeting of the Tenth Peoples Congress
Standing Committee of Fujian Province.
Article 1. These regulations are enacted in accordance with the Law of the Peoples Republic
of China on the National Common Language and relevant laws and regulations and in
combination with the actualities of this province in order to advance the normalization
and standardization of the national common spoken and written language and its healthy
development, to strengthen management over the use of the national common spoken and
written language, and to promote economic and cultural exchange and social development.
Article 2. The national common spoken and written language as referred to in these
regulations is Putonghua and the standardized Chinese characters.
Article 3. Popularizing Putonghua and promoting the standardized Chinese characters are
the common responsibilities of society as a whole.
Local peoples governments of all levels shall take measures to strengthen leadership
over the work of the national common spoken and written language and provide the necessary funding for ensuring the development of national common spoken- and written-language work.
Article 4. Spoken- and written-language work committees of local peoples governments at
and above the county level are responsible for guiding, coordinating, managing, and supervising the national common spoken and written language in their own administrative
regions. Their office shall be located at peoples government education, administration,
and management departments at the same level.
Spoken- and written-language work committees of provincial peoples governments
shall formulate and organize the implementation of province-wide national spoken- and
written-language work plans; organize and carry out activities for assessing national
common spoken- and written-language work; guide the work of training and conducting
proficiency tests for the use of Putonghua and the standardized Chinese characters; and
fulfill other responsibilities specified by laws and regulations.
Article 5. Local state organs and social organizations of all levels are responsible for managing and supervising the use of the national common spoken and written language within
their respective work units.
English translation 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Chinese text: Fu jian sheng shi shi Zhong hua ren min
gong he guo guo jia tong yong yu yan wen zi fa ban fa. Translated by Ted Wang.
2016 Taylor & Francis

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The following departments shall, in accordance with their respective responsibilities,

exercise management and supervision over the use of the national common spoken and
written language in society:
1. personnel of administration and management departments shall manage and supervise
the use of the national common spoken and written language at state organs;
2. education, administration, and management departments shall manage and supervise
the use of the spoken and written language for education and teaching in schools and
other educational institutions, and shall incorporate the normalization and standardization of the national common spoken and written language into the contents of school
supervisions, inspections, assessments, and appraisals;
3. administration and management departments of radio, television, journalism,
publishing, communications, and the information industry shall exercise management
and supervision over the use of the spoken and written language for radio broadcasting,
television, publications, the Internet, and information technology products;
4. industrial and commercial administration and management departments shall exercise
management and supervision over the use of the spoken and written language in enterprise names, product names, and trademarks as well as advertisements and signboards;
5. civil affairs administration and management departments shall exercise management
and supervision over the use of the spoken and written language for place names and
the names of social organizations and private nonenterprise entities;
6. health administration and management departments shall exercise management and
supervision over the use of the spoken and written language at medical institutions
and by medical personnel; and
7. public security organs shall exercise management and supervision over the use of the
spoken and written language for residents identity cards and the names and surnames
used in residence registration booklets.
Article 6. Spoken- and written-language work committees of provincial and city
peoples governments with district subdivisions shall carry out assessments of the use
and management of the national common spoken and written language in their respective
administrative areas in accordance with the national standards and methods for assessing
spoken- and writtenlanguage work. The results of such assessments shall be made public
to the society.
Article 7. Local peoples governments, spoken- and written-language work committees,
and other relevant departments at and above the county level shall praise work units
and individuals who make outstanding achievements in the work of using and managing
the national common spoken and written language.
Article 8. Except where the use of dialects and ethnic minority languages is permitted by
the stipulations of national laws, Putonghua is the basic language used in the following
circumstances:
1. the language used by staff members of state organs in their work, at meetings, and during
official activities such as public speeches addressed to society and other public activities;
2. the language used for education and teaching at schools and other educational
institutions;

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3. the language used for broadcasting, program hosting, and interviews at radio stations
and television stations, and for Chinese-language videos and electronic publications; and
4. the service language used for and by commerce, tourism, culture, sports, railways,
civil aviation, urban transport, postal service, telecommunications, banking, insurance,
hospitals, and other public service sectors.
Article 9. Dialects may be used as needed for economic and cultural exchanges and other
contacts with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative
Region, and the Taiwan region.
Article 10. The Putonghua proficiency of the following persons shall meet the following
grading criteria:
1. announcers, television show hosts, and movie, television, and theatrical actors and
actresses shall be at or above Grade 1B; and announcers at provincial-level radio and
television stations shall be at or above Grade 1A;
2. teachers and persons who apply for teaching qualifications shall be at or above Grade 2B;
Chinese-language teachers and teachers of the Chinese language for foreigners shall be
at or above Grade 2A; and Putonghua phonetics teachers shall be at or above Grade 1B;
3. state organ staff members shall be at or above Grade 3A; and
4. announcers, narrators, telephone operators, and tour guides who directly serve the
public in the public service sector shall be at or above Grade 2B.
Where there are persons whose Putonghua levels do not meet the specified grading criteria,
the work units in which they serve shall organize and urge them to get training.
Where job certificates are required by relevant national regulations or where state
regulations specify other Putonghua grading criteria, the cited regulations shall be observed.
Article 11. Putonghua proficiency testing shall be specifically conducted by Putonghua
proficiency-testing institutions approved by the Spoken- and Written-Language Administration
of the provincial peoples government.
The Putonghua proficiency test certificates are issued by the Spoken- and WrittenLanguage Administration of the provincial peoples government.
Article 12. The third week of September of each year shall be the Publicity Week for
Promoting Putonghua.
The spoken- and written-language work committees of peoples governments at or
above the county level shall be responsible for organizing and popularizing the activities
of the Publicity Week for Promoting Putonghua. The news media shall be responsible
for publicizing and reporting the Publicity Week for Promoting Putonghua activities.
Schools shall be responsible for organizing students to carry out various forms of activities
for publicizing Putonghua awareness and education.
Article 13. The standardized Chinese characters shall serve as the basic characters used:
1. for official business;
2. for education and teaching at schools and educational institutions;
3. in Han-language publications;

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4.
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CHINESE LAW AND GOVERNMENT

for the words on film and television screens;

by the public service sector;
on signs as the names of roads and buildings and on facilities in public places;
on advertisements and signboards;
on goods packaging, inserts, and directions for use;
for the names of corporations and other organizations and peoples names;
in Chinese-language information technology products; and
on Web sites for public use.

Article 14. The spoken and written language and wording used in advertisements should
be clear and accurate, and the characters should be normative and standardized.
The naming of buildings should comply with the relevant national regulations.
Unscientific, nonnormative, deceptive, and vulgar names may not be used.
Article 15. Standard Chinese Han characters are recommended for handwritten characters
on signboards.
Article 16. Signs in public places cannot consist solely of foreign letters or Pinyin (the
Chinese romanized spelling system). When it is necessary to use supplementary foreign
words or Pinyin, the standard Chinese characters shall be placed in the principal position
and the foreign letters or Pinyin in a subsidiary position, and the typeface of the Chinese
characters shall be larger than that of the foreign letters or Pinyin.
In all types of Chinese-language publications, the words or phrases in the titles and texts
that can be expressed in Chinese characters shall not be replaced with foreign words, unless
there are technical terms and abbreviations for which foreign words or letters have to be
used.
Article 17. The Chinese character proficiency of state organ personnel, teachers, medical
personnel, editors, reporters, Han-language subtitling personnel, proofreaders, students,
and literary craftspeople who make seals, inscribed plaques, and billboards should comply
with the corresponding state regulations.
Article 18. Citizens and news media may supervise the use of the spoken and written
language in society, and may voice criticisms and suggestions regarding any use of the
spoken and written language that violates laws and regulations on the national common
spoken and written language and that fails to comply with the norms and standards of
the national common and spoken language.
Article 19. Where there are violations of the provisions of these regulations or where
the spoken and written language is used in ways that do not comply with the norms
and standards of the national common spoken and written language, the relevant
departments shall conduct criticism and education in accordance with their respective
responsibilities, and shall handle such matters in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Where the use of words or characters in an advertisement or signboard violates the
provisions of these regulations, industrial and commercial administrative and managements

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departments shall issue a warning to the relevant responsible persons and order them to
make corrections within a specified time limit. Those who refuse to make corrections shall
be ordered to dismantle the offending advertisement or signboard and pay a fine of not less
than 1,000 yuan and not more than 10,000 yuan.
Where the use of words or characters in place signs violates the provisions of these
regulations, administrative and management departments of local governments at or above
the county level shall issue warnings to the relevant responsible persons and order them to
make corrections within a specified time limit. Those who refuse to make corrections shall
be given penalties in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Article 20. Where the relevant departments fail to fulfill their responsibilities in accordance with the provisions of Article 5 of these regulations, the spoken- and written-language
work committees of local governments at or above the county level shall order them to
make corrections. Notices of criticism shall be circulated for those that refuse to make
corrections.
Article 21. These regulations go into effect as of July 1, 2006.

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