China has introduced its first Chinese-Mongolian legal dictionary, according to the government of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

China attaches great importance to protecting the legitimate rights of people of all ethnic groups in accordance with the law, including the right to use their own languages for litigation, said Bilighuu, head of the regional justice department.

He said an authoritative dictionary was urgently needed in the areas mostly inhabited by Mongolians, considering the lack of unified translation standards between the Chinese and Mongolian languages, in a bid to provide more effective legal services for the group.

The dictionary, which contains over 80,000 entries, was completed with joint efforts from the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), the Inner Mongolia Regional Government and other institutions and departments.

The dictionary is of great significance as it provides unified standards and a foundation for legal practitioners and legal education in the areas inhabited by Mongolian people, said Feng Shiyong, vice-president of the CUPL.