The language of Putonghua is more commonly known as what?

Standard Chinese, also known as Modern Standard Mandarin, Standard Mandarin, Mandarin Chinese, or simply Mandarin, is a standard variety of Chinese that is the main official language of the People's Republic of China. Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese.

Standard Chinese is a standardised form of the language called Putonghua in Mainland China. Guoyu (Standard Taiwanese Mandarin) is a similar linguistic standard in Taiwan. Aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters (plus Hanyu Pinyin romanization for teaching), and Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters (plus Zhuyin for teaching). Many characters are identical between the two systems.

The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history. It was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. After Hong Kong's handover from the United Kingdom and Macau's handover from Portugal, their governments use Putonghua to communicate with the Central People's Government of the PRC. There have been widespread efforts to promote usage of Putonghua in Hong Kong since the handover, with specific efforts to train police and teachers.