The article describes the process of the formation of the legislative base of the People's Republic of China in the sphere of regulation of the linguistic relations and analyses the main problems related to the protection of linguistic rights. The context of this research is the history of the concept of linguistic rights at the international level in the 1990s. The author analyzes the main international legal instruments containing appropriate rules. By means of continuous sampling in the main part of the article the author studies the existing legislation of China that this or that way govern the linguistic situation and the status of the languages. Based on this analysis the author concludes that there is a lack of elaboration and definition standards contained the legislation. Following the example of inter-ethnic conflicts, the author shows how technologies of implementation language legislation create obstacles in establishing relations with national minorities, forcing them to consider their rights infringed. As a specific problem of linguistic relations in China, the article highlights the issue of the status of the dialects of the Chinese language. The study of the collected regulatory material shows that the unequal status of the language and dialects is leading to practical inequality of citizens of the country. In general, the comparison of the protection of linguistic rights in Europe and China suggests that while in the West the wide interest fades away, in China it continues to gain relevance.