List of words censored by search engines in the People's Republic of China
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The government of the People's Republic of China has set up a system of
internet censorship, intending to block internet users within Mainland China from accessing material deemed undesirable, such as foreign news sites, sites with
dissident political content, many Taiwanese websites, and pornography.
One part of the block is to remove some websites from search results on search engines. These search engines include both the local version of international search engines (e.g. Google.cn) as well as domestic ones (e.g. Baidu, Sohu). In general, regardless of whether a term is sensitive or not, many well known websites are removed form the search result, such as western news and government websites like BBC and VOA. In addition, access to a handful of US-based universities is blocked, as these websites often contain discussions regarding issues deemed politically sensitive by the Communist Party of China.
Some words are sensitive. Attempting to search for such a term may result in the turning on of the "safe search" feature, and limiting the result pages in China. However, the general internet traffic filter may interrupt a HTTP connection between the browser and the server if it detects intensive sensitive words in plaintext, as it does with other protocols, such as the Post Office Protocol, and any sequence connection to the server is also denied. This filter affects self-censored search engines, since their censorship is filtering websites, not keywords. This system is described in greater detail at Internet censorship in mainland China.
Any sequence containing the term is also blocked. For example, since 法轮 (falun, or "dharma
chakra") is blocked, so are 法轮功 (Falun Gong) and 转法轮
("Turning dharma chakra"). Also, only the Chinese terms are blocked, while the English terms are freely searchable (unless
specified otherwise).
This list is not intended to be exhaustive. Most were verified for Simplified Chinese searches for the Baidu search engine. It is known that trying from different locations inside and outside China, on different search engines, and at different times can yield different results.
General concepts
- 民主 (democracy)
(not blocked by Baidu http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%C3%F1%D6%F7&cl=3)
- 人权 (human rights)
(not blocked by Baidu http://www.baidu.com/s?ie=gb2312&bs=%C3%F1%D6%F7&sr=&z=&cl=3&f=8&wd=%C8%CB%C8%A8&ct=0)
-
- not blocked: 自由 (freedom), 改革 (reform), 选举 (elections), 多党 (multi-party), and 平反 (rehabilitate)
- 独裁 (dictatorship)
(not blocked by Baidu http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%B6%C0%B2%C3&cl=3)
-
- not blocked: 法西斯 (fascism)
- 专政
- 专制
- 反共 (anti-
communist )- not blocked: 反党 (anti-party), 反革命 (counterrevolutionary), and 反动 (reactionary)
- 反人类 (Crime against humanity)
- 共匪 (
communist bandits) — this was the term used by the Kuomintang to refer to the communists - 卖国 (selling out one's country)
- not blocked: 叛国 (treason) and 汉奸 (Chinese traitor)
- 屠杀 (massacre)
- 群体灭绝 (genocide)
- 镇压 (oppression)
- 封锁 (Blocking)
- 劳改 (laogai)
- 劳教 (Reeducation through labor)
- 红色恐怖 (Red Terror)
- 邪恶 (evil)
Events
- 中俄边界 (Sino-Russian border) - refers to the Sino-Russian Border Treaty,
which has been attacked by nationalists and dissident groups as a betrayal of Chinese sovereignty and dignity
- not blocked: 黑瞎子岛 (Heixiazi Island) and 银龙岛 (Yinlong Island)
- 六四 (June 4) - "June 4th" is the usual Chinese name for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. In contrast, "Tiananmen" refers to a geographical
place and does not usually have the same connotations.
- not blocked: 天安门 (Tiananmen)
- not blocked: 文革 (Cultural Revolution), 大跃进 (Great Leap Forward) and 三年自然灾害 (Three Years of Natural Disasters)
- 一塌糊涂 (YTHT BBS)
- not blocked: "YTHT"
- 汕尾 (Shanwei) - refers to the Dongzhou protests of
2005.
- not blocked: 太石村 (Taishi Village), 苏家屯 (Sujiatun)
Xinjiang & Tibet
- 疆独 (Xinjiang independence)
- 藏独 (Tibetan independence)
- 流亡 (exile) - e.g. Government of Tibet in Exile
- 达赖 (dalai, as in Dalai Lama)
- 根敦·确吉尼玛 (Gedhun Choekyi Nyima), 根敦·确吉 (Gedhun Choekyi-), and 确吉尼玛 (Choekyi
Nyima)
- not blocked: 额尔德尼·确吉杰布 (Erdini Qoigyijabu), 班禅喇嘛 (Panchen Lama), 西藏 (Tibet), and 东突厥斯坦 (East Turkestan)
- tibetalk - 西藏论坛, Tibet Talk, http://www.tibetalk.com/
Dissident groups
- Since 民主 (democracy) is blocked, any political group with that name is also blocked. This includes both dissident groups like 中国民主正义党 (Chinese Democracy Justice Party) [1], 民主中国 (China Democracy) [2] and government-sanctioned groups like 中国民主同盟 (China Democratic League)
- 天安门母亲 (Tiananmen Mothers)
Dissidents
- 魏京生 (Wei Jingsheng)
- 王丹 (Wang Dan)
- 吾尔开希 (Wu'er Kaixi)
- 柴玲 (Chai Ling)
- 封从德 (Feng Congde)
- 丁子霖 (Ding Zilin)
- 王若望 (Wang Ruowang)
- 刘宾雁 (Liu Binyan)
- 吴弘达 (Harry Wu)
- 司徒华 (Szeto Wah)
- 方舟子 (Fangzhouzi, Nickname of Fang Shimin, but his real name 方是民 is not blocked)
- 张戎 (Jung Chang, author of Mao: The Unknown
Story)
- not blocked: 王若水 (Wang Ruoshui) and 孙文广 (Sun Wenguang)
Politicians
- 江泽民 (Jiang Zemin)
- Search engines like Baidu, Google, and Yahoo don't block this name.
- 江贼, 贼民, 江流氓 (all three describe Jiang Zemin as a bandit)
- 江罗 (Jiang Luo, refers to Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan)
- not blocked: 罗干 (Luo Gan)
- 赵紫阳 (Zhao Ziyang)
- 鲍彤 (Bao Tong)
- No other blocks on the names of politicians have been discovered. 胡锦涛 (Hu Jintao), 温家宝 (Wen Jiabao), 胡耀邦 (Hu Yaobang), 华国锋 (Hua Guofeng), 邓小平 (Deng Xiaoping), 毛泽东 (Mao Zedong), 周恩来 (Zhou Enlai), 刘少奇 (Liu Shaoqi), 林彪 (Lin Biao), 宋庆龄 (Soong Ching-ling), 孙中山 (Sun Yat-sen), 彭德怀 (Peng Dehuai), 朱德 (Zhu De), 董必武 (Dong Biwu), 万里 (Wan Li), 乔石 (Qiao Shi), 李鹏 (Li Peng), 朱镕基 (Zhu Rongji), 李瑞环 (Li Ruihuan), 曾庆红 (Zeng Qinghong), 李先念 (Li Xiannian), 陈独秀 (Chen Duxiu), 瞿秋白 (Qu Qiubai, 向忠发 (Xiang Zhongfa), 杨尚昆 (Yang Shangkun), and 蒋介石 (Chiang Kai-shek) are not blocked.
Dissident news
- 大参考 (Dacankao) [3]
- 博讯 (Boxun) [4]
- 华夏文摘 (China News Digest) [5]
- 多维 (Chinese News Net) [6]
- 纪元 (Epoch), the second and third characters of 大纪元 (Epoch Times) [7]
- 自由亚洲, first four characters of 自由亚洲电台 (Radio Free Asia) [8]
- 人民报 (Renminbao), [9]
- peacehall — same as Boxun
- 美国之音 (Voice of America)
Falun Gong
- 法轮 (falun, or "dharma chakra")
- 法伦 (falun)
- 轮功 (lun gong, the second and third characters of Falun Gong)
- 轮大 (lun da, the second and third characters of Falun Dafa)
- 大法 (dafa, or "Great Law")
- 洪志 (hongzhi, given name of Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi)
- 弟子 (disciple)
- 真善忍 (Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance) — the principles of the Falun Gong practice
- 明慧 (Minghui, official website of Falun Gong) [10]
- falun
- hongzhi
- minghui
- not blocked: 王文怡 (Wenyi Wang)
Taiwan
- 民进党 (Democratic Progressive Party)
- not blocked: 台湾团结联盟 (Taiwan Solidarity Union), 泛绿 (Pan-Green), 中华民国 (Republic of China), and 台独 (Taiwan independence)
- not blocked: 国民党 (Kuomintang) and 泛蓝 (Pan-Blue)
- not blocked: 陈水扁 (Chen Shui-bian), 吕秀莲 (Annette Lu) and 李登辉 (Lee Teng-hui)
- not blocked: 宋美龄 (Soong May-ling), 蒋经国 (Chiang Ching-kuo), 蒋方良 (Chiang Fang-liang), and 马英九 (Ma Ying-jeou)
Pornography
- 花花公子 (Playboy)
Others
- 东方红时空
- 九评共产党 (The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party)
- 不为人知的故事 (The Unknown Story) - refers to the book "Mao: The Unknown Story"
- 李志绥 (Li Zhisui, author of the controversial book "The Private Life of Chairman Mao")
- 支那 (Shina (word))
External links
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