Standard Chinese, often colloquially called Mandarin Chinese, is the modern standardized form of Mandarin Chinese, largely based on the Beijing dialect. It is the official lingua franca of the People's Republic of China, one of the six official languages of the United Nations, one of the national languages of Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore. It is a pluricentric language with local variations in Mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore, which mainly differ in accent and lexicon. In Mainland China, Standard Chinese is most commonly called Putonghua, while in Taiwan it is most commonly called Guoyu.
