Multilingualism in the governance of a ‘monolingual’ country: micro language planning, dispute settlement and social governance in China

China is often erroneously perceived as a homogeneous and monolingual country, overlooking its internal diversity of peoples and languages, as well as the external heterogeneity brought by recent international influxes. This article disrupts this misconception by presenting Yiwu – the world's largest small-commodities market – as China's testing ground for a multicultural city, unpacking how multilingualism is planned and leveraged to settle disputes, govern the business market and serve the interests of the state. A sociolinguistic ethnography at the Yiwu People's Mediation Committee for Foreign-related Disputes revealed how official policy discourses, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and grassroots social governance, were enacted through day-to-day language practices. The value of multilingualism (e.g. multilingual legal handbooks and mediators) was illustrated in dispute resolution but also in integrating non-Chinese migrants into mainstream society and system. Drawing upon Foucault's notion of governmentality, I empirically captured the micro–macro continuum and argue that micro-level language planning is an indirect act of governing the community and the state, where docile bodies are produced. In doing so, this article problematises our current understandings of linguistic realities in China and encourages us to rethink the power of multilingualism in the new era of the BRI.