Blocking of Wikipedia in mainland China
Encyclopedia
On several occasions, the government and Internet service provider
s of the People's Republic of China
(PRC) have blocked access to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia
due to strict censorship
laws enacted by the PRC. The blocks function in a similar way to a content filter
. As with Internet censorship in the PRC
in general, the self-governing territories of Hong Kong
and Macau
, which have separate legal systems, are not affected. Wikimedia sites have been blocked at least three times in their history.
In June 2007, the block was lifted except for the Chinese version of Wikipedia
and a select number of articles (including Falun Gong
and Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
). In August 2007, all languages were blocked again.
In April 2008, access to most of the Wikipedia English site was again restored amid the heavy protests occurring during the Olympic torch relay
around the world. Access to the Chinese Wikipedia was restored soon after. In September 2008, Jimmy Wales
had a meeting with Cai Mingzhao
, Vice Director of China's State Council Information Office ("the government body whose 'Internet Management Division' is in charge of censoring online content."). While no agreements were made, Wales believes that a channel of communication has been opened between Wikipedia's community and the PRC Government.
from Beijing
was blocked on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
.
Possibly related to this occurrence, on May 31 an article from the IDG News Service was published, discussing the Chinese Wikipedia's treatment of the protests. The Chinese Wikipedia also has articles on various topics considered controversial within China, such as Taiwan independence
, written by contributors from Taiwan and elsewhere, Falun Gong
, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
, and so on. A few days after the initial block of Chinese Wikipedia, all Wikimedia
sites were blocked in mainland China.
In response to the blocks, two sysop
s on the Chinese Wikipedia, Shizhao and Mountain, contacted their respective ISPs, and confirmed that the Wikimedia sites had been blocked. Shizhao's ISP, China Science & Technology Net, expressed willingness to submit an appeal to lift the block. Shizhao and Mountain then drafted an appeal, which was submitted on June 15, 2004. The appeal stated that Wikipedia was an encyclopedia that does not serve any political bias, strives to be neutral, and provides an avenue for foreigners to understand China
and Chinese culture. The appeal also compared the Chinese Wikipedia's coverage of controversial topics to coverage in existing encyclopedias in China, and suggested that the blocking of Wikipedia would prevent sysops from removing undesirable content. All the Wikimedia sites were unblocked between June 17 and June 21, 2004.
There was no explanation for the block, either before or after its occurrence. The block had an effect on the vitality of Chinese Wikipedia, which suffered sharp dips in various indicators such as the number of new users, the number of new articles, and the number of edits. In some cases, it took anywhere from 6 to 12 months in order for these to return to their levels of May 2004.
, a popular Peking University
-based BBS that was shut down a few weeks earlier for hosting overtly radical political discussions. Former users from the BBS had arrived en masse on Chinese Wikipedia. Chinese Wikipedia editors once again prepared a written appeal to regional ISPs, but the block was lifted before the appeal was actually sent out.
have reported on the status page that they can only access Wikipedia using proxy servers.
On 21 October 2005, 'Shizhao' once again submitted an appeal to his ISP, and stated:
The appeal submitted strove to be closer to the position of the Chinese government than the first appeal submitted in 2004. It stated:
In the morning of 31 October 2005, Chinese Standard Time (UTC +8), Wikipedia editors from all parts of mainland China began to report that they could access Wikipedia without using proxies. It was initially thought that the block had indeed been lifted, but later on the apparent "unblocking" was linked to the deployment of an LVS load balancer in front of the squid in the Korean server cluster, which changed the IP address
of Wikimedia sites for users in China, thus circumventing the block. In any case, within a few hours normal access to Wikipedia was once again impossible. There has been some discussion that a self-censored version could be made available to users in mainland China, and supporters argue that 99% of Wikipedia would remain intact. However, these ideas have not been put into practice.
ger in Liuzhou
, Guangxi
, who posted his finding to an online forum at about 6 pm on October 10, 2006, Beijing Time. However, access appears to differ depending on location and Internet service provider as a result of more fine-grained blocking. According to initial reports by bloggers within China, China Netcom
residential DSL in Beijing allowed access to English Wikipedia but denied access to Chinese Wikipedia. Meanwhile China Telecom
DSL in Shanghai
allowed access to both, as did CETC-CHINACOMM Communications Co. Ltd in Beijing. Various providers in Anhui
blocked access to Chinese Wikipedia but not to the English version. Posters to the Slashdot
online forum who stated that they were in Beijing further noted that while they could access the English language version of the Tiananmen Square
article, which includes a brief description of the 1989 protests, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
article remained blocked. There was a similar report that the article democracy
was available on English Wikipedia, while Falun Gong
was unavailable. In contrast, Reporters Without Borders
stated on 12 October that English Wikipedia appeared entirely unblocked, including the article on the 1989 protests, but that the Chinese language version was inaccessible by most Chinese. The advocacy organization criticized the government shift as meant "to appease its critics abroad while continuing to censor the information available to its own population," while congratulating "those in charge of Wikipedia, especially Jimmy Wales
". Wikipedia users state that other language editions, including German
, Japanese
, and Korean
are available at this time.
On 10 November 2006, blogger Andrew Lih reported that Chinese Wikipedia appeared to have been fully unblocked. Lih confirmed the full unblocking several days later and offered a partial analysis of the effects based on the rate of new account creation on Chinese Wikipedia. Prior to the unblocking, 300-400 new accounts were created on Chinese Wikipedia daily. In the four days since the unblocking, the rate of new registrations more than tripled to over 1,200 daily, jumping into the second fastest growing Wikipedia after the English version. Similarly, there were 75% more articles created in the week ending on November 13 than during the week before. Coming on the same weekend that Chinese Wikipedia passed the 100,000 article mark, Lih predicted that the second 100,000 would come quickly but that the existing body of Chinese Wikipedia users would have their hands full teaching the new users and teaching them basic Wikipedia policies and norms.
On 16 November 2006, Reuters
news agency reported the main page of the Chinese language
version of Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org) could be displayed and searches for apolitical terms turned up results, but some subjects remained blocked, such as "June 4
". However, subsequent reports suggested that both the Chinese and English versions had been reblocked the next day on 17 November. It is not yet confirmable if the unblocking that occurred in October and November 2006 was due to technical problems of the so-called "Great Firewall of China" or for any other reasons.
On 15 June 2007, the block was lifted, with the exception of several "sensitive" articles and the Chinese Wikipedia. On 25 July 2007, the Chinese Wikipedia was unblocked as well. From there the number of blocked articles slowly increased, including several talk pages, and news links. Users in China who attempted to access a blocked article or any page on the Chinese Wikipedia were prevented from accessing any Wikimedia site for a period of sixty seconds. On 30 August 2007, the block for the Chinese Wikipedia was lifted, the following day, all languages of Wikipedia were again blocked.
in Guangzhou
. Connections to the Chinese Wikipedia are completely blocked as of April 6, 2008. Any attempt to access the Chinese Wikipedia results in a 60-second ban on all Wikimedia websites. However, users are able to log on to Chinese Wikipedia using https. All other languages are not blocked, but politically sensitive searches such as Tibet
were still blocked. As of 31 July 2008, The Register
reported that access to the Chinese Wikipedia had again been unblocked. This was confirmed by the BBC
, and came within the context of foreign journalists arriving in Beijing
to report on the upcoming Olympic Games
; websites such as the Chinese edition of the BBC were being unblocked following talks between the International Olympic Committee
and the Games' Chinese organisers.
After the Olympics, all Wikimedia websites (including Chinese and English Wikipedia) remain unblocked to this date, with the exception of a few pages deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, mainly political articles regarding China, or articles describing the PRC's Internet censorship. Moreover, any page (including user or talk pages) may be blocked if it includes certain forbidden keywords. It is believed that the government has ceased the blocking activity after the first block occurred more than 4 years ago.
software. Whenever a block occurs, business users outside mainland China (particularly from Hong Kong
) receive collateral damage
because business partners sometimes link their office network in Hong Kong with other offices' networks in mainland China.
.
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
(PRC) have blocked access to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
due to strict censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
laws enacted by the PRC. The blocks function in a similar way to a content filter
Content-control software
Content-control software, also known as censorware or web filtering software, is a term for software designed and optimized for controlling what content is permitted to a reader, especially when it is used to restrict material delivered over the Web...
. As with Internet censorship in the PRC
Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. There are no specific laws or regulations which the censorship follows...
in general, the self-governing territories of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
, which have separate legal systems, are not affected. Wikimedia sites have been blocked at least three times in their history.
In June 2007, the block was lifted except for the Chinese version of Wikipedia
Chinese Wikipedia
Chinese Wikipedia is the Chinese language edition of Wikipedia, run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Started in October 2002, Chinese Wikipedia had over 270,000 articles as of September 2009 and 383,391 articles as of November 7, 2011...
and a select number of articles (including Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
and Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
). In August 2007, all languages were blocked again.
In April 2008, access to most of the Wikipedia English site was again restored amid the heavy protests occurring during the Olympic torch relay
2008 Summer Olympics torch relay
The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from March 24 until August 8, 2008, prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, with the theme of "one world, one dream". Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China...
around the world. Access to the Chinese Wikipedia was restored soon after. In September 2008, Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
had a meeting with Cai Mingzhao
Cai Mingzhao
Cai Mingzhao is the Propaganda Department's deputy director of the 17th Central Committee in the People's Republic of China.-History:Mingzhao was the deputy director of the State Council Information Office from 2001 until 2009.-References:...
, Vice Director of China's State Council Information Office ("the government body whose 'Internet Management Division' is in charge of censoring online content."). While no agreements were made, Wales believes that a channel of communication has been opened between Wikipedia's community and the PRC Government.
First block
The first block spanned from June 2 to June 21, 2004. It began when access to the Chinese WikipediaChinese Wikipedia
Chinese Wikipedia is the Chinese language edition of Wikipedia, run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Started in October 2002, Chinese Wikipedia had over 270,000 articles as of September 2009 and 383,391 articles as of November 7, 2011...
from Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
was blocked on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
.
Possibly related to this occurrence, on May 31 an article from the IDG News Service was published, discussing the Chinese Wikipedia's treatment of the protests. The Chinese Wikipedia also has articles on various topics considered controversial within China, such as Taiwan independence
Taiwan independence
Taiwan independence is a political movement whose goals are primarily to formally establish the Republic of Taiwan by renaming or replacing the Republic of China , form a Taiwanese national identity, reject unification and One country, two systems with the People's Republic of China and a Chinese...
, written by contributors from Taiwan and elsewhere, Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
, and so on. A few days after the initial block of Chinese Wikipedia, all Wikimedia
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
sites were blocked in mainland China.
In response to the blocks, two sysop
SysOp
A sysop is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system or an online service virtual community. It may also be used to refer to administrators of other Internet-based network services....
s on the Chinese Wikipedia, Shizhao and Mountain, contacted their respective ISPs, and confirmed that the Wikimedia sites had been blocked. Shizhao's ISP, China Science & Technology Net, expressed willingness to submit an appeal to lift the block. Shizhao and Mountain then drafted an appeal, which was submitted on June 15, 2004. The appeal stated that Wikipedia was an encyclopedia that does not serve any political bias, strives to be neutral, and provides an avenue for foreigners to understand China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Chinese culture. The appeal also compared the Chinese Wikipedia's coverage of controversial topics to coverage in existing encyclopedias in China, and suggested that the blocking of Wikipedia would prevent sysops from removing undesirable content. All the Wikimedia sites were unblocked between June 17 and June 21, 2004.
There was no explanation for the block, either before or after its occurrence. The block had an effect on the vitality of Chinese Wikipedia, which suffered sharp dips in various indicators such as the number of new users, the number of new articles, and the number of edits. In some cases, it took anywhere from 6 to 12 months in order for these to return to their levels of May 2004.
Second block
The second and less serious block lasted between September 23 and September 27, 2004. During this 4-day period, access to Wikipedia was erratic or unavailable to some users in mainland China—this block was not comprehensive and some users in mainland China were never affected. The exact reason for the block was unknown, but it may have been linked with the closing down of YTHT BBSYTHT
Yi Ta Hu Tu Bulletin Board System, or YTHT BBS, began on September 17, 1999, and was built by students in Peking University, Beijing, China.In Chinese, Yi Ta Hu Tu means 'extremely messy' literally...
, a popular Peking University
Peking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
-based BBS that was shut down a few weeks earlier for hosting overtly radical political discussions. Former users from the BBS had arrived en masse on Chinese Wikipedia. Chinese Wikipedia editors once again prepared a written appeal to regional ISPs, but the block was lifted before the appeal was actually sent out.
Third block
The third block began on 19 October 2005. Nearly a year later on 10 October 2006, the block was partially lifted. In response to the block, the main page of the Chinese Wikipedia has added a message at the top directing any mainland China user who succeeds in getting through to a special status page. Dozens of editors from across mainland ChinaMainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
have reported on the status page that they can only access Wikipedia using proxy servers.
On 21 October 2005, 'Shizhao' once again submitted an appeal to his ISP, and stated:
"If nothing goes wrong, the block should be lifted within one week. " On October 24, Shizhao posted, "The block will be lifted by Wednesday [October 26]. According to procedure (the details of which are unknown), after the appeal is submitted, a reply will come within 3 business days, and my appeal has already been submitted by the ISP on Friday. My ISP has said that so far they haven't encountered a case where an appeal has failed. This should be good news, but it's still impossible to know the reason for the block."
The appeal submitted strove to be closer to the position of the Chinese government than the first appeal submitted in 2004. It stated:
"... [t]he most effective approach is not to reject [this project] outside our borders, but to participate in it actively. If we block Wikipedia, we lose the opportunity to speak with the world with a Chinese voice, and allow forces such as evil cults and Taiwan independence [to] control the development of content in the project, thus presenting to the world a twisted [image of] China; as users, we lose a channel through which we could access knowledge, a channel whose importance is rising constantly; such an act [i.e. blocking] is no different from cutting away our own voice and tongue, or shutting our own eyes and ears; it is closing the doors to our country in the age of the internet." (Original text)
In the morning of 31 October 2005, Chinese Standard Time (UTC +8), Wikipedia editors from all parts of mainland China began to report that they could access Wikipedia without using proxies. It was initially thought that the block had indeed been lifted, but later on the apparent "unblocking" was linked to the deployment of an LVS load balancer in front of the squid in the Korean server cluster, which changed the IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
of Wikimedia sites for users in China, thus circumventing the block. In any case, within a few hours normal access to Wikipedia was once again impossible. There has been some discussion that a self-censored version could be made available to users in mainland China, and supporters argue that 99% of Wikipedia would remain intact. However, these ideas have not been put into practice.
Unblocking and reblocking
Beginning from October 10, 2006, conflicting reports came in from different parts of China about a possible lifting of the block. The first report of a change was by a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger in Liuzhou
Liuzhou
-History:thumb|Liuchow in 1945.Liuzhou has a history of more than 2,100 years. The city was founded in 111 B.C. when it was known as Tanzhong....
, Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
, who posted his finding to an online forum at about 6 pm on October 10, 2006, Beijing Time. However, access appears to differ depending on location and Internet service provider as a result of more fine-grained blocking. According to initial reports by bloggers within China, China Netcom
China Netcom
China Netcom, full name China Netcom Group Corporation Limited , abbreviated CNC, was a former telecommunication service provider in People's Republic of China...
residential DSL in Beijing allowed access to English Wikipedia but denied access to Chinese Wikipedia. Meanwhile China Telecom
China Telecom
China Telecom Corp. Ltd. is a Chinese state-owned telecommunication company. It is the largest fixed line service and 3rd largest mobile telecommunication provider in the People's Republic of China.-Sectors:...
DSL in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
allowed access to both, as did CETC-CHINACOMM Communications Co. Ltd in Beijing. Various providers in Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
blocked access to Chinese Wikipedia but not to the English version. Posters to the Slashdot
Slashdot
Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
online forum who stated that they were in Beijing further noted that while they could access the English language version of the Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...
article, which includes a brief description of the 1989 protests, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
article remained blocked. There was a similar report that the article democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
was available on English Wikipedia, while Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
was unavailable. In contrast, Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
stated on 12 October that English Wikipedia appeared entirely unblocked, including the article on the 1989 protests, but that the Chinese language version was inaccessible by most Chinese. The advocacy organization criticized the government shift as meant "to appease its critics abroad while continuing to censor the information available to its own population," while congratulating "those in charge of Wikipedia, especially Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
". Wikipedia users state that other language editions, including German
German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and mostly publicly editable online encyclopedia.Founded in March 2001, it is the second-oldest and, with over articles, the second-largest edition of Wikipedia, behind the English Wikipedia...
, Japanese
Japanese Wikipedia
is the Japanese-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, open-content encyclopedia. It has over articles, making it the ninth largest language edition of Wikipedia after the English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Russian editions. Started in September 2002, the edition attained...
, and Korean
Korean Wikipedia
The Korean Wikipedia ) is the Korean language edition of the Wikipedia. It was founded in October 2002 and reached ten thousand articles on 4 June 2005. As of November 8 2011, it has 180,569 articles and is the 20th largest Wikipedia.-History:...
are available at this time.
On 10 November 2006, blogger Andrew Lih reported that Chinese Wikipedia appeared to have been fully unblocked. Lih confirmed the full unblocking several days later and offered a partial analysis of the effects based on the rate of new account creation on Chinese Wikipedia. Prior to the unblocking, 300-400 new accounts were created on Chinese Wikipedia daily. In the four days since the unblocking, the rate of new registrations more than tripled to over 1,200 daily, jumping into the second fastest growing Wikipedia after the English version. Similarly, there were 75% more articles created in the week ending on November 13 than during the week before. Coming on the same weekend that Chinese Wikipedia passed the 100,000 article mark, Lih predicted that the second 100,000 would come quickly but that the existing body of Chinese Wikipedia users would have their hands full teaching the new users and teaching them basic Wikipedia policies and norms.
On 16 November 2006, Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
news agency reported the main page of the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
version of Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org) could be displayed and searches for apolitical terms turned up results, but some subjects remained blocked, such as "June 4
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
". However, subsequent reports suggested that both the Chinese and English versions had been reblocked the next day on 17 November. It is not yet confirmable if the unblocking that occurred in October and November 2006 was due to technical problems of the so-called "Great Firewall of China" or for any other reasons.
On 15 June 2007, the block was lifted, with the exception of several "sensitive" articles and the Chinese Wikipedia. On 25 July 2007, the Chinese Wikipedia was unblocked as well. From there the number of blocked articles slowly increased, including several talk pages, and news links. Users in China who attempted to access a blocked article or any page on the Chinese Wikipedia were prevented from accessing any Wikimedia site for a period of sixty seconds. On 30 August 2007, the block for the Chinese Wikipedia was lifted, the following day, all languages of Wikipedia were again blocked.
Unblocks in 2008
As of 2 April 2008, the block was lifted. As of 5 April 2008, the Chinese Wikipedia was difficult to access from the Sun Yat-Sen UniversitySun Yat-sen University
Sun Yat-sen University, also unofficially referred to as Zhongshan University , is a prominent university located mainly in Guangzhou, China. The University is named after Dr...
in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
. Connections to the Chinese Wikipedia are completely blocked as of April 6, 2008. Any attempt to access the Chinese Wikipedia results in a 60-second ban on all Wikimedia websites. However, users are able to log on to Chinese Wikipedia using https. All other languages are not blocked, but politically sensitive searches such as Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
were still blocked. As of 31 July 2008, The Register
The Register
The Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...
reported that access to the Chinese Wikipedia had again been unblocked. This was confirmed by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, and came within the context of foreign journalists arriving in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
to report on the upcoming Olympic Games
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
; websites such as the Chinese edition of the BBC were being unblocked following talks between the International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
and the Games' Chinese organisers.
After the Olympics, all Wikimedia websites (including Chinese and English Wikipedia) remain unblocked to this date, with the exception of a few pages deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, mainly political articles regarding China, or articles describing the PRC's Internet censorship. Moreover, any page (including user or talk pages) may be blocked if it includes certain forbidden keywords. It is believed that the government has ceased the blocking activity after the first block occurred more than 4 years ago.
Mirror sites
The block occasionally raises a debate whether Wikipedians in China should build their own "censored" edition of Chinese Wikipedia, but most agree that it is inconsistent with the core value of Wikipedia. While most uncensored mirror sites have been banned, some mirrors have survived by censoring out most articles relating to the politics of China. Miniwiki Miniwiki.org has introduced a NPOV policy (No political point of view) to exclude most political articles relating to China. According to site builders, "Wikipedia should never censor anything. If we really need it for some reasons, let mirror sites do it."Others
The block helps to promote and utilize proxyProxy server
In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource available from a different server...
software. Whenever a block occurs, business users outside mainland China (particularly from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
) receive collateral damage
Collateral damage
Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
because business partners sometimes link their office network in Hong Kong with other offices' networks in mainland China.
Circumvention of the block
Technically adept Internet users in China are currently able to circumvent the block fairly easily (using almost any anonymous proxy). They may view but not edit Wikipedia in this manner, as Wikipedia's policy on open proxies prevents users from editing using open proxies and many administrators block open proxies in a way which prevents even registered users from using them to edit articles. Internet users in China can also view archived versions of Wikipedia pages by going to a mirror such as Answers.comAnswers.com
Answers.com is an Internet-based knowledge exchange, which includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard...
.
See also
- Golden Shield ProjectGolden Shield ProjectThe Golden Shield Project , colloquially referred to as the Great Firewall of China is a censorship and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public Security division of the government of the People's Republic of China...
- Politics of the People's Republic of ChinaPolitics of the People's Republic of ChinaThe politics of the People's Republic of China take place in a framework of a single-party socialist republic. The leadership of the Communist Party is stated in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China...
- Human rights in the People's Republic of ChinaHuman rights in the People's Republic of ChinaHuman rights in the People's Republic of China are a matter of dispute between the Chinese government, other countries, international NGOs, and dissidents inside the country. Organizations such as the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have accused the Chinese...
- Baidu BaikeBaidu BaikeBaidu Encyclopedia is a Chinese language collaborative Web-based encyclopedia provided by the Chinese search engine Baidu. Like Baidu itself, the encyclopedia is heavily self-censored in line with government regulations....
- Status report page on Chinese Wikipedia
- Internet freedom
- Wikipedia:Advice to users using Tor to bypass the Great Firewall
External links
- Reporters without Borders article
- New York Times Article
- CBS News Article
- Reuters Canada Article
- Aljazeera Article.
- China 'unblocks' Wikipedia site (BBC News)
- Reference Tool On Web Finds Fans, Censors (Washington Post Foreign Service)
- Full Text: Cui Objects to Wikipedia Shutdown (translated by The Washington Post Beijing Bureau)
- Full Text: Shi's Defense of Wikipedia (translated by The Washington Post Beijing Bureau)
- China and Internet Censorship (CNN.com)
- Authorities block access to online encyclopaedia (International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX))
- Wikipedia Versus China The Hour with George StroumboulopoulosGeorge StroumboulopoulosGeorge Mark Paul Stroumboulopoulos is a Canadian television and radio personality, best known as the host of CBC Television's George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight and being a VJ for Canadian music television channel MuchMusic...
, interview with Jimmy Wales, 13 Oct. 2006