To demonstrate this it may be useful to look at Chinese first, because it is the largest language in the world and might well be competing with English in Asia. Yet, if so, the evidence is hard to find, and it is also difficult to find a need for Chinese as a lingua franca, despite its size and significance, beyond East Asia. Chinese has little impact on Russia and the -stans, and no role at all in South and West Asia. In addition, there are two other comparable large Asian language complexes: Hindi-Urdu in India and Pakistan, and Arabic in West Asia. Both have worldwide diasporas, but even so both are largely centred on their region, in much the same way as Mandarin. Arabic, Hindi-Urdu, and Mandarin Chinese are large and will keep growing regionally, but none is likely to serve as a pan-Asian lingua franca, and speakers of these languages often also learn and use English.