China’s Hunan Province plans to introduce a law that would require all civil servants to speak Mandarin. Under this law, those who fail examinations in Mandarin would not be promoted and could even be “removed from their posts.” (Demoted? Fired?)

If the law is approved, the province will be the first to enforce such a law. The law was planned after the authorities received many complaints about civil servants with poor language skills.

source: Civil servants urged to brush up Mandarin, China Daily, January 13, 2006