Which language family includes the Miao and Yao languages spoken in Guizhou?

The Miao and Yao languages spoken in Guizhou belong to the Hmong-Mien language family, which is also referred to as Miao-Yao.12

While the term "Miao-Yao" is of Chinese origin and often used to categorize these groups based on cultural and political identity, many Western scholars prefer the designation "Hmong-Mien" to avoid confusion between ethnic classifications and linguistic relationships. Within this family, the Hmongic (Miao) and Mienic (Yao) branches are distinct, and the family itself is currently considered an independent linguistic group by many linguists, as theories linking it to other families like Sino-Tibetan have not gained general acceptance.1