No other country has more profound lingual diversity than China, whose 1.3 billion inhabitants fall within eight major linguistic groups. Mainland academics may argue that all Chinese people are linked by the universal characters of written Chinese, but this assertion fails to address the simple fact that these eight localized spoken dialects, though related, are mutually incomprehensible. And despite many attempts to create a standardized spoken Chinese language, or guoyu, provincial loyalties have scuttled the effort every time. According to this passage, the most consistent obstacle to a unified Chinese language is