On January 20, the Director of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, Shen Chungyao, announced during a meeting of the NPC Standing Committee that schools in “minority areas” were no longer allowed to teach their own languages, declaring such education to be “unconstitutional”. In a report that he presented, Shen Chungyao emphasised the superiority of national laws over local laws in autonomous provinces and regions by stating that all local regulations violate “the country’s major reform directions” and “the provisions of the higher-level law”. He said some local regulations that allow ethnic schools to use ethnic languages in teaching are inconsistent with the Chinese Constitution's order to promote Putonghua in the country.