China's Vice Minister of Education Du Zhanyuan has asked poverty-stricken regions to improve their popularization of Mandarin Chinese, so language barriers would no longer prevent them from getting rid of poverty.

The regions should take advantage of the Mandarin popularization week as a platform to consolidate their achievements in poverty alleviation, and continue with their efforts to battle poverty, Du said at the opening ceremony of the 21st national Mandarin popularization week in southwest China's Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Starting from Wednesday, the week features Mandarin tests, literary competitions, reading events and other activities across the country, in order to popularize the country's laws, policies and standards on Mandarin, and promote the Chinese language culture.

A work plan on Mandarin popularization in poverty alleviation was jointly released by the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission in January, including the popularization of the Mandarin language and words in the general plan of poverty alleviation.

As of 2015, about 73 percent of Chinese people can speak Mandarin Chinese, up from 53 percent in 2000, while more than 95 percent of the literate population can use standardized Chinese characters.

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