China is a big country, and people in different area speak different chinese. So chinese government select a language which is spoken by people in Beijing as standard language for all chinese. When you come to china, you should learn Chinese (Mandarin), this is important. If you want to live in china, you should learn a language which is spoken in your city.

every Chinese speaks chinese,but not every Chinese people can speak mandarin. people in different place in China have their own dialect, and maybe it's difficult to understand for people from other places in China. but all Chinese know mandarin, and can understand mandarin. mandarin is an offical language by which people came from different places in China communicating with each other.

No, "Chinese" is not the same with "Mandarin". Chinese is including every kind of Chinese dialect. At first Mandarin is a dialect of China. Later, Mandarin become the official language of China and is promoted in the nation. The relationship of them is that " Chinese > Mandarin ".

Hello Jennifer, Most of the Cantonese Chinese speakers I encountered speak and understand Mandarin as well. But still if you asked someone : " Do you speak Chinese"? The precise answer would be "Which dialect or which Chinese do you mean?" It is a general term for people who don't know exactly the different types and dialects there are in China, e.g Mandarin , Cantonese, Shanghais , Taiwanese etc. Again since "Mandarin" is the most widely spoken dialect in China ,saying "do you speak Chinese"? might refer to it specifically. The correct accurate question would rather be : " Do you speak Mandarin ?" or "Which Chinese dialect do you speak"?

I can speak Chinese. I can speak mandarin.I am in Beijing.