This is a good comment, but oddly leaves out the fact that, for many decades, it has been quite infamous that there is no universal agreement -- indeed it has b

This is a good comment, but oddly leaves out the fact that, for many decades, it has been quite infamous that there is no universal agreement -- indeed it has been quite controversial -- as to whether the the different Chinese languages/dialects are in fact languages or dialects. The by-now ancient joke is that a "language is a dialect with an army and navy". Less jokingly, the different Chinese "dialects" share a written language, as above, but the other spoken "dialects" are largely unintelligible to those who have been exposed to only one of those spoken "dialects".