List of territorial entities where Chinese is an official language

The following is a list of the countries where Chinese is an official language. While those countries that designate Chinese as an official language use the term "Chinese", as Chinese is a group of related language varieties, of which many are not mutually intelligible, in the context of the spoken language such designations are usually understood as designations of specific varieties of Chinese, namely Standard Cantonese Chinese and Standard Mandarin Chinese. In the context of the written language, written modern standard Chinese is usually understood to be the official standard, though different territories use different standard scripts.

As special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau list the ambiguous "Chinese" as their official language, although in practice the regionally traditional Cantonese dialect is used by the government as the official variant of Chinese rather than the mainland's customary variant of Mandarin.

Cantonese is also highly influential in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where the language originated. Despite Mandarin's status as the official language of China, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) has allowed local television and other media in Guangdong Province to be broadcast in Cantonese since 1988 in order to countermeasure against Hong Kong influence. Meanwhile, usage of the country’s other dialects in media is rigorously restricted by the SARFT, with permission from national or local authorities being required for a dialect to be the primary programming language at radio and television stations. Despite its unique standing relative to other Chinese dialects, Cantonese has also recently been targeted by the SARFT in attempts to curb its usage on local television in Guangdong. This created mass demonstrations in 2010 that resulted in the eventual rejection of the plans.

While Mandarin actually consists of closely related varieties of Chinese spoken natively across most of northern and southwestern China, a standard form based on the variant of the Beijing area has been established as its standard and is official in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore. However, in the latter two jurisdictions, local languages have influenced the spoken vernacular form of Mandarin.

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