White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the U.S. ambassador in Beijing has spoken to Chinese officials to "express our concern and complaint" about the revocation of Cheek's visa.

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Many Malays feel angry about the emphasis the government places on Mandarin (spoken by most Chinese) and promoted by national campaigns.

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Malay remains the national language (there are four official languages), but it is not spoken by most Chinese and is largely seen as a relic of Singapore's past union with Malaysia.

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Chinese leaders have spoken before about the importance of political reform (while ushering in very little), but Mr Wen's emphasis was unusual.

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But there are handicaps, including language: Chinese is widely spoken in many other Asian destinations, including Malaysia and Singapore, but not in South Korea.

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But the words can come in a phonetic English form, Chinese characters and even spoken form.

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Only Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and English the world's most widely spoken second language have the sheer numbers of speakers to make it probable that they will survive for at least the next 300 years.

ECONOMIST: Language

Apparently, the French firm has also spoken to Tingyi, another major food manufacturer, and COFCO, the large Chinese agribusiness conglomerate.

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