media - Half of the Chinese speak Chinese

The China Digital News pointed me at this excellent example of propaganda in de China Daily. The key finding of the State Working Committee of the Chinese language, says the story, is that 53 percent of the Chinese actually speaks standard Chinese. The Committee has worked six long years to get the result together. Only 18 percent of the Chinese speak Chinese at home.
To be honest, I know that Chinese is a pretty difficult language, but the result is still shocking, a little bit more than half of the Chinese speaks Chinese. What is the headline of the China Daily story: "Greater numbers speak putonghua". Guess they needed some creativity to find a positive angle in the story.