"Chinese" is not a very specific term, since it includes a variety of dialects and languages. Mandarin is a specific kind of Chinese, and is a much more specific term. Chinese is similar to 汉语. Mandarin is similar to 汉语普通话, as opposed to Cantonese or Shanghainese or other kinds of Chinese。 Usually though, when we say Chinese, we mean Mandarin, and they're used interchangeably.

In one context, there is no difference. 是普通话。In a wider context, Chinese in various spoken forms is the third most common language in the United States, with Spanish second and English first.

People sometimes think of all dialects of Chinese (for example, 普通话，广东话，and东北话) as "Chinese", and some Americans do not know that there are different dialects of Chinese.

Chinese is a general term used to encompass all the different dialects of the Chinese language. Mainland China and Singapore speak the Mandarin dialect. (national language) Taiwan speaks the Taiwanese dialect. (They learn Mandarin in school but speak their local dialect.) Hong Kong speaks the Cantonese dialect. There are hundreds of other dialects of Chinese spoken by various minority groups in mainland China as well .