Words Censored by China’s Largest Search Engine

The Epoch Times May 11, 2009

China’s largest search engine, Baidu.com, is said to censor a list of politically sensitive words, including ‘withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party.’H (u Zhixuan/The Epoch Times)

New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) recently obtained a list of politically “sensitive” words monitored or censored by China’s largest Internet search engine, Baidu.com, as well as internal documents governing Baidu’s censorship operations.

Topping the list is the phrase “Chinese Communist Party.” Phrases such as “withdrawing from the Communist Party” and “disintegrating the Communist Party” are also censored. “Nine Commentaries,” “The Epoch Times,” and “Gao Zhisheng,” are high on the censor list.

On May 4, NTDTV reported 13 categories of politically sensitive words, including those related to “counterrevolutionary” activities, human rights and appeals, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Falun Gong, ethnic and race relations, military secrets, and organ harvesting.

Under the category of counterrevolutionary activities, censored phrases include “end the rule of the Communist Party,” “dictatorship,” “one-party system,” “human rights in China,” “tyranny,” “ruling government,” and “brainwashing.”

In the Falun Gong category, all words directly related to the practice are on the list. Words related to the Chinese regime's persecution of the practice, such as “kidney harvesting from live people” are included.

There is a special category for words related to the sale of harvested organs. This category shows the Communist Party’s fear of the consequences of harvesting Falun Gong practitioners’ organs while they are still alive.

Mr. Bill Xia, a U.S.-based computer expert who invented the software Dynamic Web to break through the Chinese regime’s Internet censorship, believes that despite the regime’s effort, it has not been able to achieve its goals. Due to the large quantity of software like Dynamic Web on the Internet it is possible to circumvent the blockades.

Falun Gong practitioners living outside of China have also written software, such as the Golden Shield program, that can penetrate the regime's Internet firewall. This allows Internet users in mainland China to break through the Communist Party’s Internet monitoring and see a free flow of information from the rest of the world.

Read this article in Chinese.