Indonesian is widely used as the national language. Most formal education, and nearly all national mass media, governance, administration, judiciary, and other forms of communication in the Riau Islands, are conducted in Indonesian. It is also used for inter-ethnic communication. Indonesian is spoken as the first language in major cities such as Batam and Tanjung Pinang, while it is spoken as a second language elsewhere in the province. The Chinese people in the Riau Islands uses Indonesian as their third language, with Hokkien or other Chinese varieties being used as their first language and the local Riau Malay as their second language.