ResearchFree Expression Online

Who’s the Boss? The difficulties of identifying censorship in an environment with distributed oversight A large-scale comparison of Wikipedia China with Hudong and Baidu Baike

In 2008, Baidu’s chief scientist William Chang said “There’s, in fact, no reason for China to use Wikipedia . . . It’s very natural for China to make its own products.” Today Hudong (baike.com) and Baidu Baike (baike.baidu.com) greatly eclipse the Chinese-language version of Wikipedia despite (or because of) the censorship known to take place on the sites. However, identifying outright instances or patterns in censorship can be difficult due to the (mostly) user-generated nature and oversight of the content. Instead, this project attempts to perform a large-scale comparison of the three services, matching thousands of Chinese-language Wikipedia articles with their in-China counterparts, in order to identify the “content gaps” in the two baike (Chinese for “encyclopedia,” which we use to refer to Hudong’s and Baidu’s online encyclopedias). Censorship—or at the very least anomalies in the generation of content—might be identified by articles that don’t exist, “protected” articles that are not editable by regular users, and by articles that are much shorter than those on Wikipedia China. The reason might  is emphasized is due to the distributed oversight nature of these online encyclopedias, where not only governments but also companies and users get to play the role of content gatekeeper. This decentralization makes attributing who is responsible for apparent censorship more difficult, a topic which this report will explore in detail by examining how it functions in these online encyclopedias.

In addition to the exploring the difficulties in identfying censorship, this post will also lay out the research methodology of the article matching, some of the initial results, and the next steps to be taken in the coming months as we continue to analyze this data and expand the project. As the data for this project has just been collected, this report is more data dump than fully-composed, critical analysis (see the final section for future avenues of research and thinking), but hopefully it serves as an introduction into the sorts of quality data available in this project.

Tables with lists of articles that are protected/locked on Wikipedia, Baidu Baike, and Hudong as well as a list of articles that are found on Wikipedia China but not found on the two baike are below. You can jump directly to them by clicking the links in the previous sentence, but as the data is still preliminary and has many limitations, one might be best served reading through the following sections.

Baike: Chinese encyclopedias

As William Chang of Baidu foretold, mainland Chinese netizens have gravitated toward local products such as Hudong and Baidu Baike, leaving Wikipedia China to be edited and read primarily by users in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the rest of the Chinese diaspora. Today, in terms of raw visitors and article count, Hudong and Baidu Baike dwarf Wikipedia China, which has roughly 700,000 articles versus over 5 million in each of the two baike. Certainly, while China’s sporadic blocking of access to Wikipedia at various points over the past ten years has certainly been a factor in limiting Wikipedia China’s growth among mainland users, Baidu and Hudong’s dominance may be more credited to Baidu’s entrenched position as the dominant search engine in China (thus allowing for cross-site “partnerships” and synergies1) and Hudong’s bevy of features built into its custom wiki and social networking platform.

Though the baike are incredible sources of information on China, they have been dogged by allegations that they have liberally “borrowed” content from other websites, including Wikipedia–a not damnable offense in and of itself since Wikipedia’s content is free to share and re-use, but the two baike are for-profit and inform users that any content contributed is property of Hudong and Baidu. In the past, Baidu was noted as the worst offender, plagiarizing from not only Wikipedia without credit but also from Hudong.2 Though the goal of this project is not to analyze these plagiarization claims and to quantify the amount of shared content among the three encyclopedias, the data generated from the matching of articles as explained in the methodology section below would allow someone to easily perform this sort of follow-up analysis once the data from this project is cleaned up and released.

The difficulties of identifying censorship in an environment with distributed oversight

This project began with a question: everyone “knows” Hudong and Baidu Baike, like all Chinese websites, have to restrict certain kinds of content on their websites, but is it possible to empirically prove that censorship is taking place on the sites? Thinking about different ways of testing our assumption with the publicly available data on the websites drove this project.

First, what would we consider signs of censorship on Hudong and Baidu Baike? The most obvious would be the lack of certain articles on topics that are known to be notable. Thus, using Wikipedia China as a control, we can propose that if an article on say 上海帮 (The Shanghai Gang) exists on Wikipedia China, barring censorship, it should exist on Hudong and Baidu Baike, especially since Hudong and Baidu Baike have a much larger library of entries. However, attributing the lack of an entry due to censorship is not a perfect science since Wikipedia China itself isn’t a perfect control–though entries in Wikipedia China are assumed to be of interest to Hudong and Baidu Baike users, and thus should have articles in those encyclopedias, one should keep in mind that Wikipedia China does tend to have a Taiwanese bend due to its userbase. However, using missing articles as a potential indicator for possible censorship–especially if the article that is missing is a long one–is a reasonable start.

Second, comparisons could also be made between the length of the articles between the encyclopedias. For instance, an article might exist on all three services, but they might be drastically shorter than their Wikipedia counterpart. For instance, the main body of the Wikipedia entry for 艾未未 (Ai Weiwei) is over 20,000 characters long (spaces removed) while the Baidu entry for him clocks in at 2,000 characters and the Hudong one at 3,500–this is despite the fact that article lengths for the Baidu articles sampled in this project are on the whole longer than Wikipedia’s: the mean Wikipedia China article length is 8,174 characters (median: 4,207) while Baidu’s is 12,679 (median: 9,029). Discrepancies of the sort in the Ai Weiwei article might simply be a case of greater interest in the topic outside mainland China than within, or, again, it might be another potential indicator of censorship.

Third, some especially sensitive or controversial articles are unable to be edited except by users with much higher privileges than ordinary members. Being unable to change an article is not in and of itself a sign of censorship; for instance, Wikipedia “protects” certain articles to prevent vandalism and pointless back-and-forth “edit wars.” Baidu and Hudong no doubt have similar intentions in mind as well, but what matters here is matter of transparency–while Wikipedia publishes a list of all protected pages, as far as we can tell, no such corresponding list exists for Hudong and Baidu Baike–and authority. Was it the choice of editors and users at Hudong and Baidu to classify certain articles as locked or was the decision made higher? Was there an open discussion of such matters or was a list handed down from somewhere above? Interviewing regular users of Baidu Baike and Hudong might provide insight into such questions, but for now, we have some data to start with.

Finally, there are more subtle ways to disrupt access to information, many of which we will no doubt uncover as we continue to sift through the data. One that we’ve noticed is the “failure” by Hudong and Baidu to redirect certain article titles the same way that Wikipedia does. For instance, a search for 艾神, a laudatory nickname meaning “God Ai” for Ai Weiwei, properly redirects to the Wikipedia article for him. Hudong and Baidu Baike don’t perform such re-directs. Again, whether this is a conscious decision or merely an inadvertent one cannot be answered by looking at this one example. However, by looking at such cases in the aggregate one might be able to make a more legitimate claim that something might be going on.

Many new media outlets such as Sina Weibo privilege users with the ability to generate the content that goes on the website–in essence, to be not only their own programmer or broadcaster but also the producer. However, because such websites host their users’ content, they are also in charge of regulating and ensuring that such content complies with all Chinese laws–regardless of how vague such regulations might be. Thus attributing censorship that takes place on these sites can be unclear–is it the government that mandated certain topics are off-limits or is it the company that restricts the content?–an intentional feature of the decentralized system of information control that Chinese authorities have developed.

Censorship is further distributed on the baike because now not only are users their own programmer and producer, but they also serve in an oversight capacity as an editor. Unlike Wikipedia, users who aren’t registered can’t begin editing and creating articles, but for the most part, registered users can edit most general articles, and as they engage with the site longer, they achieve greater and greater levels of ability to edit and oversee the website. Thus, there could are always at least three potential reasons for why an article doesn’t exist, an article is shorter, or an article is locked on Hudong or Baidu Baike: government entities, private companies, or users themselves. Judging whether or not these factors are genuine instances of governmental censorship or due to explainable, organic reasons can be quite tricky. Because of the multiple layers of oversight, what may appear to be outright censorship may be a less malicious (though no less pernicious) case of self-censorship.

Methodology

As mentioned, this project is a large-scale attempt to quickly and automatically match thousands of Wikipedia China articles with their corresponding Hudong and Baidu Baike entry. A script was developed which did just that, taking a keyword, locating the correct Wikipedia article and scraping the desired data, and then repeating the process for Hudong and Baidu, respectively, before moving on to the next keyword–essentially relying on Hudong and Baidu to perform the proper title matching or, if the title did not match exactly, redirect to the appropriate article.

Zhichun Wang, Juanzi Li, Zhigang Wang, and others at the Computer Science Department at Tsinghua University have already made great strides in “knowledge linking” between English Wikipedia and Hudong/Baidu Baike, and their approach to matching articles across different languages using machine learning to read semantic information is well beyond the scope of this report. However, techniques from their work may be employed in the future, though the current title matching approach employed for this projecy is already a fairly robust solution as is–especially since we are dealing with only one language. In “Cross-lingual knowledge linking across wiki knowledge bases,” Wang et al. reported that simple title matching gave them a precision percentage in excess of 99% even when having to translate from Chinese to English; however the recall rate was an atrocious 32%.

The data collected for this project still has to be evaluated properly, but thus far results seem very promising. Out of 5,143 keywords tested, Hudong and and Baidu each successfully found or redirected us to an appropriate article 3,539 and 3,600 times respectively, a recall rate of at least 68%–a number which is likely much higher once we account for the fact that the script also attempted to use search results to identify and match instances when the keyword was found in the returned search results’ snippets (the article titles and summaries).

Of these 3,500+ times, the exact title–meaning a character for character match–was made between Wikipedia and Hudong 2,037 times, and 2,080 times between Wikipeda and Baidu Baike. If one assumes that an exact match in the article title is a match in the article content as well, then the precision rating for matched articles is nearly 60% already, and that’s not yet taking into account all the articles titles which are only slightly different between the services, either due to different styling conventions (e.g. Wikipedia’s article on national universities is titled with traditional characters [國立大學] while Hudong and Baidu both use simplified [国立大学]) or other minor variations. Overall, the matching procedure, at least for the terms tested thus far, seems more than acceptable for the goals of this project, though of course attempts will be made to verify the precision and increase the recall rate.

As a test of the script and the methodology, a sample of 5,143 keywords involving a mix of topics known to be sensitive and those known to be popular were generated from five different sources: the titles of articles protected by Wikipedia (282); article titles from the list of Wikipedia China articles on GreatFire.org’s watchlist of censored Wikipedia pages (489); article titles of the top 1000 most viewed articles on Wikipedia China in April 2013 (995 after a few Wikipedia meta-pages were removed); the titles of articles that generated more than a total of 10 combined views on August 1, 0:00-1:00 and 12:00-13:00 (3,470); and finally, the only non-Wikipedia source, a list of keywords from the website Blocked on Weibo previously confirmed to have been prevented from returning search results on Sina Weibo (840). Some of the final sample of keywords appeared on multiple lists, and the overlap of four of the sources is shown below (the source of words from August 1 were dropped because 5-way Venn diagrams are not as pretty…).

4-way Venn diagram showing overlap of sources used for keywords (not shown: keywords taken from most viewed Wikipedia China articles on Aug 1) generated with Venny</a
4-way Venn diagram showing overlap of sources used for keywords (not shown: keywords taken from most viewed Wikipedia China articles on Aug 1)
generated with Venny

The following variables were scraped from all three encyclopedias: length of article, URL, title of the article (which can differ from the URL), locked/protected status, last modified date, and a number of other meta variables. From Hudong and Baidu, other variables included the number of “likes” (that is positive votes that the page was “helpful”) and number of edits. Variables unique to Baidu were pageviews for the article, and whether or not the page contained multiple entries (unlike Wikipedia, Baidu Baike doesn’t serve up “disambiguation” pages when the user searches for a broad term which could refer to multiple topics, and instead serves up all the entries on a single page; see for instance this entry for “Jordan” which includes the basketball player Michael Jordan as well as the country Jordan). Variables unique to Hudong were number of editors and the error message given when trying to edit a locked page–either 对不起,您的题目中含有不当内容,请检查? (“Sorry, the topic contains inappropriate content, please check?”);  您不能编辑敏感词条 (“You are not allowed to edit sensitive entries”);  您不能编辑普通敏感词条 (“You are not allowed to edit general sensitive entries”).

Protected, missing, and censored(?) content

As mentioned previously, an article that is protected or locked doesn’t necessarily mean that it is being censored–Wikipedia often uses article protection as a means to prevent malicious behavior. However, the locking down of articles itself can be abused and used in a malicious manner, especially if the decision to do so is non-transparent, arbitrary, and/or doesn’t reflect the sentiment of the group. In such cases, Wikipedia fortunately has active “talk pages” which allow all users to debate and contest such issues. Baidu Baike also has discussion pages which allow users to to something similar: for instance, here’s one for the entry on the United Kingdom wherein users quibble about whether or not England can lay claim to being the place where the first “bourgeois revolution” took place (the consensus was no, the Dutch Revolt came before it). However, many protected Baidu Baike entries contain no such talk pages. For instance, trying to reach Xi Jinping’s talk page returns an error message. Hudong eschews separate talk pages in favor of comments at the bottom of each entry. However, again, oftentimes for sensitive and/or protected entries, there is no opportunity to leave your comment; the comments box simply doesn’t appear.

Furthermore, while the list of pages protected by Wikipedia is published by the site, as far as we can tell, no such list exists for Hudong or Baidu Baike. Thus, even with he caveats noted above about how the articles in the following three tables don’t necessarily conclude that censorship is taking place in those entries, this exercise still seems like a useful one if only to make such information publicly available. Again, proper analysis is yet to be done on what is protected/locked and what sorts of patterns exist in the three different encyclopedias approaches to article protection.

Note: the machine translations come from Google Translate. Those that have been corrected or verified have notes or a dot in the third column; if the third column is empty, the translation is still to be confirmed–an ongoing part of this project. Please do not disseminate unconfirmed machine translations without first verifying that they are correct.

Protected articles on Wikipedia China

Article title + Wikipedia link Machine translation Human translation / notes (if field is blank, translation still to be confirmed)
民主黨_(香港) Democratic Party (Hong Kong) .
庾澄慶 Harlem Yu Taiwanese pop star
東方報業集團 OrientalPress Group Hong Kong publisher of newspapers: Oriental Daily News
丁部領 Dinh Bo Linh Vietnamese emperor
蒼井空 Sora Aoi Japanse porn star
蔡煌瑯 Tsai Huang-lang Taiwanese politician
首页 homepage .
蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen
新店救護車阻擋事件 Storeambulance blocking event
草榴社区 Grass garnet Community Caoliu online forum
丁文雄 DingwenXiong
AV女優 AV Actress .
南陽郡 NanyangCounty
林書豪 Jeremy Lin basketball player
阮文雄 RuanwenXiong
星野亞希 Aki Hoshino
濱田翔子_(演員) Bin Shoko(Actor)
佐佐木希 Sasaki Nozomi
朝河兰 NorthRiver Portland
濱崎步 Ayumi Hamasaki Japanese porn star
原紗央莉 OriginalSaori
小澤瑪麗亞 Maria Ozawa
Angelababy Angelababy
佐山愛 Ai Sayama
郭書瑤 GuoShu-Yao
大纪元时报 The Epoch Times Falun Gong-connected publication
國立大學 national university .
公立大學 Public universities .
全球定位系统 GlobalPositioning System
国父_(罗马帝国) Pater Patriae (Roman Empire) “Father of the Country” honorific
潘佩珠 Phan
哥德巴赫猜想 Goldbach’s conjecture
彭淮南 Perng
吳淑珍 Wu Shu-chen
第十四世达赖喇嘛 FourteenthDalai Lama
宋教仁 Sung
司马南 Sima Nan
天海翼 Day sea wing
性高潮 Orgasm
蔡依林 Jolin
满族 Manchu
U-KISS U-KISS
维基百科 Wikipedia
印度神油 Indian god oil
江泽民 Jiang
东京热 Tokyo Hot
正覺同修會 ChingPractitioners Association
六合彩 LOTTO
越南政黨列表 Vietnameseparty list
Dry
朱明 Zhu
中华人民共和国行政区划 People’s Republic of administrativedivisions
齡記書店 Ling Kee
2012年香港立法會選舉 2012 Hong Kong Legislative CouncilElection
真佛宗 TrueBuddha School
海椰子 Sea coconut
鶴佬陸上扒龍船 GrilledHoklo dragon boat onshore
馮光遠 Peng says
蔡瑞月 Tsai
衛星定位系統 Satellite positioning system
大连理工大学 DalianUniversity of Technology
拌麵 Noodles
MediaWiki MediaWiki
利菁 Lee Ching
狭义相对论 SpecialRelativity
南京大學校友列表 Nanjing University Alumni List
李长春 LiChangchun
有栖川宮 Arisugawanomiya
郑州加州工业城 ZhengzhouCity of Industry, California
莫莉花 Molly Flowers
曾偉恩 Zeng Wayne
捕捉、絕育、釋放 Trap-Neuter-Release
自慰 Masturbation
顺阳范氏 Shun Yang Fan
港西镇_(崇明县) Hong KongWest Town (Chongming County)
陳炳 Chen Ping
發正念 HairMindfulness
許瑜真 Xu Yu True
十二年國教學生研討會 Twelvenational seminar teaching students
任天堂溥天 Nintendo Popteam
南阳范氏 NanyangFan
阿坎巴羅雕像 Aquin Barrow Statue
伊卡黑石 IcaBlackstone
瘂弦 Ya Xian
呂泉生 LvQuansheng
中国大陆 Chinese mainland
丁先皇 DingXianhuang
天主教香港教區 Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong
蔡衍明 Tsai
小游戏 Small game
曹昂 Cao Ang
曹鑠 Cao Shuo
加拉帕戈斯象龜 Galapagostortoises
北西摩島 North Seymour Island
Hao123网址之家 Hao123website
中华人民共和国政府认定的邪教组织列表 PRC Government has identified alist of cult
被政府認定為邪教的團體列表 Identifiedby the government as a cult group list
馬三家女子勞教所 Masanjia Women’s Forced Labor Camp
神韵艺术团 Shen YunPerforming Arts
多面体 Polyhedron
巴丹群島 BatanesIslands
蘇家屯事件 Sujiatun
薄瓜瓜 Bo Guagua
拳王_(電視劇) Muhammad (TV series)
朱雪璋 ZhuxueZhang
黑魔女學園 Black witch academy
缺宅男女 Lack ofhouse men and women
楊怡 Tavia
伏見宮 FushimiPalace
对毛泽东的评价 Evaluation of Mao
中国共产党中央委员会主席毛泽东同志支持美国黑人抗暴斗争的声明 ChineseCommunist Party Central Committee with Comrade Mao Zedong declared thestruggle to support African-American uprising
蟾蜍 Toad
闲院宫载仁亲王 CourtPalace, Prince Akishino idle load
皇室 Imperial family
當旺爸爸 When thebusy dad
李克强 Li Keqiang
幾米 Jimmy
维权运动 Rights movement
骨部 Bony part
行政院環境保護署 Environmental Protection Agency
南華足球隊 SouthChina Football Team
鍾嘉欣 Linda
行政院 ExecutiveYuan
朝鲜战争 Korean War
蔡宇傑 Cai Yujie
越南共和国 Republic of Vietnam
陳智雄 ChenZhixiong
陈良宇 Chen Liangyu
單戀雙城 Unrequitedlove Twins
交通部中央氣象局 Central Weather Bureau
中華民國教育部 Republicof China Ministry of Education
中華民國交通部 Republic of China Ministry ofTransportation
巨輪 Large ship
九江十二坊 Jiujiang twelve Square
香港獨立媒體 HongKong’s Independent Media
方志敏 Fang Zhimin
梁振英 LeungChun-ying
表情符号 Emoticons
雷霆掃毒 Thunderantidrug
摘星之旅 Reaching for the Stars Tour
Yummy_Yummy YummyYummy
宣萱 Jessica
赌博 Gambling
澳門博彩業 Macau gaming
台灣日治時期 ColonialTaiwan
星光少女_Rainbow_Live Starlight Girls Rainbow Live
葉瑋庭 Yewei Ting
李若彤 Carman
宜昌市 YichangCity
萬曆朝鮮之役 Wanli Korean Battle
露梁海戰 BeamedBattle
台北暗殺星 Taipei assassination Star
閑院宮 Busyhospital Palace
时空轮回 Space reincarnation
叛逃_(電視劇) Defection(TV series)
樊光耀 Fan Guangyao
忠奸人 DonnieBrasco
寒山潛龍 Hanshan Qianlong
胡定欣 Nancy
在台越南人 Vietnamese people in Taiwan
洪仲丘事件 Hung ChungConfucius event
王亦豐 Wang Yifeng
臺北市私立再興高級中學 PrivateHigh School, Taipei redevelop
吳奇隆 Nicky
鄭嘉穎 Kevin
朴善英 Sun Young
崔真理 CUI Truth
翡翠台電視劇集列表_(2010年代) Jade TV set list (2010s)
夏侯霸 Xiahou Ba
大韓帝國 Daehan Empire
李朝實錄 Chao-Record
吳卓羲 Ron Ng
東華三院邱子田紀念中學 TWGH YauTze Tin Memorial College
國立暨南國際大學 National Chi Nan University
渤海国 BohaiState
神探高倫布 Detective high Columbus
李宇春 Li Yuchun
余貴美子 Kimiko
Running_Man RunningMan
小高句丽 Small Koguryo
安东都督府 AntonDudufu
唐与高句丽的战争 Tang Dynasty and Koguryo war
EXO EXO
馬賽_(藝人) Marseille (entertainer)
天下女人心 WorldWomen Want
东淤地站 East warping Station
上海市 Shanghai
半总统制 Semi-presidentialism
銀正雄 SilverMasao
倪妮 Ni Ni
十四世达赖 Dalai
李長春 Li Changchun
民主黨_(香港) Democrats_ (Hong Kong)
江澤民 Jiang
苏家屯事件 Sujiatun
薄熙来 Bo Xilai
香港民主黨 Hong KongDemocratic Party
丹增嘉措 Tenzin Gyatso
Wikipedia Wikipedia
Hao123 Hao123
日本AV女優 JapaneseAV Actress .
鐵馬尋橋 A Fistful Of Stances
東京熱 Tokyo Hot
蘭陵王_(電視劇) Lanling (TV series)
洪仲丘 Hung ChungConfucius
薄熙来事件 Bo Xilai event
維基百科 Wikipedia
手淫 Masturbation
溏心風暴 Heart ofGreed
科比·布莱恩特 Kobe Bryant
SUHO#SUHO SUHO
貓屎媽媽 Mother cat feces
守業者 Entrepreneurs
TPA TPA
父與子_(民視電視劇) Father andSon (FTV TV series)
武藤兰 Muto blue

Protected articles on Baidu

Article title + Baidu Baike link Machine translation Human translation / notes (if field is blank, translation still to be confirmed)
丹增嘉措 Tenzin Gyatso 14th Dalai Lama
司马南 Sima Nan Television pundit
伟哥 Viagra
江泽民 Jiang
六合彩 LOTTO
李长春 Li Changchun
自慰 Masturbation
薄瓜瓜 Bo Guagua
李克强 Li Keqiang
部骨陷 Ministry bone defect
陈良宇 Chen Liangyu
中华民国教育部 Republic of China Ministry of Education
梁振英 Leung Chun-ying
叶玮庭 Yewei Ting
宜昌 Yichang
吴奇隆 Nicky
李宇春 Li Yuchun
万里 Miles
三年自然灾害 Three years of natural disasters
习仲勋 Xi
习近平 Xi Jinping
令计划 Orders Scheme
何俊仁 Albert
余杰 Yu Jie
侯德健 Hou Dejian
侯德健 Hou Dejian
俞正声 Yu
刘云山 Liu Yunshan
刘延东 Liu Yandong
刘慧卿 Emily
刘淇 Liu Qi
刘晓波 Liu Xiaobo
丹增嘉措 Tenzin Gyatso
反华势力 Anti-China forces
吴邦国 Wu Bangguo
周永康 Zhou Yongkang
唯色 Woeser
回良玉 Hui Liangyu
国际特赦组织 Amnesty International
宋任穷 Song Renqiong
宋任穷 Song Renqiong
宋彬彬 Song Binbin
张德江 Zhang
张高丽 Zhang Gaoli
徐才厚 Xu Caihou
李卓人 Yan
李源潮 Li Yuanchao
李瑞环 Li
李瑞环 Li
李长春 Li Changchun
李鹏 Li Peng
江泽民 Jiang
汪洋 Wang Yang
温家宝 Wen Jiabao
激流中国 Torrent China
热比娅·卡德尔 Rebiya Kadeer
热比娅·卡德尔 Rebiya Kadeer
王乐泉 Mr Wang
王兆国 Wang
王岐山 Wang Qishan
王有才 Wang Youcai
王乐泉 Mr Wang
王立军 Wang Lijun
秦城监狱 Qincheng Prison
章嘉呼图克图 Akiyoshi Hutuketu
章诒和 Zhang Yihe
绿坝-花季护航 Green Dam – Youth Escort
罗干 Luo Gan
罗干 Luo Gan
习近平 Xi Jinping
胡耀邦 Hu Yaobang
胡锦涛 Hu
艾未未 Ai Weiwei
华国锋 Hua Guofeng
蒋介石 Chiang Kai-shek
薄熙来 Bo Xilai
西藏 Tibet
贾庆林 Jia Qinglin
贺国强 He Guoqiang
贾庆林 Jia Qinglin
赵紫阳 Zhao Ziyang
赵紫阳 Zhao Ziyang
达赖喇嘛 Dalai Lama
郭伯雄 Guo
阎明复 Yan Mingfu
霍英东 Henry Fok
马英九 Ma Ying-jeou
丹增嘉措 Tenzin Gyatso
阿沛·阿旺晋美 Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme
中华人民共和国宪法 Constitution of the PRC
刘慧卿 Emily
李鹏 Li Peng
张立昌 Zhang Lichang
9·21乌坎村事件 9.21 Wukan event
中国共产党 Communist Party of China
绿坝-花季护航 Green Dam – Youth Escort
彭丽媛 Peng Liyuan
章诒和 Zhang Yihe
红色高棉 Khmer Rouge
中华民国 Republic of China
中国共产党中央政治局 Chinese Communist Party Politburo
中文维基百科 Chinese Wikipedia
中华民国 Republic of China
何清涟 He Qinglian
共产党 Communist party
华国锋 Hua Guofeng
大跃进 Great Leap Forward
天与地 Heaven and Earth
林昭 Lin Zhao
毛泽东 Mao Zedong
民主 Democracy
邓小平 Deng Xiaoping
64 64
tor tor
百度 Baidu
百度 Baidu
禽流感 Avian Influenza
qq qq
泰国 Thailand
文化大革命 Cultural Revolution
母亲节 Mother’s Day
越南 Vietnam
新加坡 Singapore
阴茎 Penis
H7N9型禽流感 H7N9 avian influenza
尖锐湿疣 Genital warts
周恩来 Zhou Enlai
林彪 Lin Biao
中国好声音 China good voice
蒋介石 Chiang Kai-shek
金正日 Kim Jong Il
qq qq
铊中毒 Thallium poisoning
谷俊山 Dragon Hill Valley
阴蒂 Clitoris
qq qq
吴千语 Wu thousand words
金泫雅 Kim HyunA
蒋经国 Chiang Ching-kuo
Thallium
刘志军 Liu Zhijun
射精 Ejaculation
Nichkhun Horvejkul Nichkhun Horvejkul
元朝 Yuan
潮吹 Squirting
李小龙 Bruce Lee
乳房 Breast
朴施厚 Park Shi Hoo
江青 Jiang Qing
伊斯兰教 Islam
毛新宇 Mao Xinyu
张志新 Zhang Zhixin
叶剑英 Ye Jianying
亚斯伯格症候群 Asperger’s Syndrome
阿尔茨海默病 Alzheimer’s disease
中国人民解放军空军 People’s Liberation Army Air Force
处女膜 Hymen
带状疱疹 Shingles
自闭症 Autism
斯里兰卡 Sri Lanka
梅毒 Syphilis
四川 Sichuan Province
刘少奇 Liu Shaoqi
胡春华 Hu Chunhua
邓力群 Deng Liqun
F-22战斗机 F-22 fighter
乌有之乡 Utopia
包皮 Foreskin
汉朝 Han
唐嫣 Tang Yan
中国国民党 Chinese Kuomintang
朱镕基 Zhu
谭咏麟 Alan Tam
狂犬病 Rabies
飞蚊症 Floaters
蔡英挺 Cai handsome
彭德怀 Peng
中暑 Heatstroke
精液 Semen
林允儿 Lin Yun children
花木兰 Mulan
青光眼 Glaucoma
中国好声音第二季 China good sound second quarter
吴昌德 Wu Changde
三级片 Three pieces
亨丁顿舞蹈症 Huntington
尚福林 Shang Fulin
黄华华 Huang Hua
纳尔逊·罗利赫拉赫拉·曼德拉 Raleigh, Hela He pulled Nelson Mandela
泌尿道感染 Urinary tract infections
台北 Taipei
达姆弹 Dumdum
隐翅虫 Paederus
痛风 Gout
中华民国国军 Republic of China Armed Forces
张又侠 Xia Zhang
高虎城 Gao
女性生殖系统 Female Reproductive System
自慰 Masturbation
红斑性狼疮 Lupus Erythematosus
谵妄 Delirium
百度百科 Baidu Encyclopedia
湿疹 Eczema
火药 Gunpowder
糖尿病 Diabetes
马馼 Ma Wen
乌克兰 Ukraine .
幽门螺杆菌 Helicobacter pylori bacteria in stomach
杨尚昆 Yang
贴吧 Post Bar
艾滋病 AIDS
乳糖不耐受 Lactose intolerance
党和国家领导人 Party and state leaders
前列腺 Prostate .
北海舰队 North Sea Fleet
月经 Menstruation
李先念 Li Xiannian Chinese politician, former president
类风湿关节炎 Rheumatoid Arthritis
中国人民解放军第38集团军 38th Chinese People’s Liberation Army
乳癌 Breast cancer .
低血压病 Hypotension
刘亚洲 Liu Yazhou
大麻 Marijuana
火龙果 Pitaya
王立军 Wang Lijun
西藏 Tibet
陈希同 Chen Xitong .
三唑仑 Triazolam drug for treating insomnia
便秘 Constipation
强迫症 Obsessive-compulsive disorder
耳鸣 Tinnitus
双相障碍 Bipolar disorder
阳痿病 Impotence .
剑风传奇 Chuah legend
狂犬病病毒 Rabies virus
王震 Wang Zhen Chinse politician, one of Eight Elders
精神分裂症 Schizophrenia
苏州 Suzhou
针眼 Pinprick
韩寒 Han
黑崎一护 Kurosaki Ichigo
CF CF Crossfire, Korean video game
中国人民解放军总后勤部 People’s Liberation Army General Logistics Department
公主病 Princess disease
卵巢癌 Ovarian cancer .
21-三体综合征 21 – trisomy
子宫颈癌 Cervical cancer .
尿酸 Uric acid
房峰辉 Room Feng Hui
牛肉 Beef
肝炎 Hepatitis
肺炎 Pneumonia
胆固醇 Cholesterol
血压 Blood pressure .
黄金圣斗士 Gold Saint
龟头 Glans
AK-47突击步枪 AK-47 assault rifles .
ps3 ps3
TPA TPA
中华人民共和国副主席 Chinese Vice President
中国共产党第一次全国代表大会 China First National Congress of the Communist Party
中国共产党 Communist Party of China
中华民国刑法 Republic of China Criminal Law
凤凰卫视 Phoenix
刘晓波 Liu Xiaobo
前列腺按摩 Prostate massage
大鲵 Giant salamander .
孙政才 Sun Zhengcai Chinese politician, head of Chongqing
彭真 Peng Zhen
手足口病 HFMD
拔火罐 Cupping
日俄战争 Russo-Japanese War
朱德 Zhu
东森电视台 Eastern Television
水肿 Edema
爱奇艺 iQiyi Chinese video website
番红花 Saffron
Wart
Hemorrhoid
癌症 Cancer
白内障 Cataract
白血病 Leukemia
睡眠 Sleeping
睾丸 Testicle
结核 Tuberculosis .
花木兰 Mulan
荨麻疹 Urticaria form of hives (rash)
贾廷安 Jia Yanan
邓朴方 Deng Pufang son of Deng Xiaoping
高圆圆 Gao Yuanyuan
中国共产党 Communist Party of China
乔石 Qiao
储波 Chu Bo
冷溶 Leng Rong
列确 Legqog
吗啡 Morphine
吴仪 Wu
奸淫 Adultery
宪章 Charter
恋童 Pedophilia
恋足 Foot Fetish
Force
李群 Lie
杜宪 DU Xian
炸弹 Bomb
游行 Parade
丁羽心 Ding Yu heart
万武义 Wan Wuyi
伊斯兰教 Islam
何厚铧 Ho
何鲁丽 He Luli
俞正声 Yu
刘华清 Liu Huaqing
刘振亚 Liu Zhenya
中华人民共和国副主席 Chinese Vice President
厉无畏 Li Wuwei
叶选平 Ye Xuanping
吴志明 Wu Zhiming
吴阶平 Jieping
夏德仁 Xia Deren
姜异康 Jiang Yikang
姜春云 Chunyun
孟学农 Meng Xuenong
全能神 Almighty God
尉健行 Wei Jianxing
张定发 Zhang Ding hair
徐勤先 Xu Qin first
戴相龙 Dai Xianglong
自慰 Masturbation
政治犯 Political
暴露癖 Exhibitionism
曾培炎 Zeng
朱云来 Mr Zhu
李肇星 Li Zhaoxing
杜冷丁 Pethidine
杜导正 Du Daozheng
林嘉祥 Lin Jiaxiang
梁保华 Liang Baohua
TNT TNT
全能神 Almighty God
中国共产党中央军事委员会 Chinese Communist Party Central Military Commission
六月四日 04-Jun
敏感 Sensitive
台湾独立运动 Taiwan independence movement
向巴平措 Qiangba
奥克托今 Octogen
幼幼新书 Youyou book
江绵恒 Mr Jiang
淫液 Cum
滴蜡 Candle Wax
焦国标 Jiao Guobiao
王宝森 Wang Baosen
由喜贵 Xigui
白恩培 Bai Enpei
巨型气枪 Huge Guns
中国人民解放军第38军 38th Chinese People’s Liberation Army
经叔平 Jing Shuping
色欲 Lust
三硝基苯酚 Trinitrophenol
董建华 Tung
邓颖超 Yingchao
郭金龙 Guo Jinlong
金人庆 Jin Renqing
阴囊 Scrotum
阴蒂 Clitoris
陈炳德 Chen Bingde
达赖喇嘛 Dalai Lama
氯胺酮 Ketamine
学潮 Campus upheaval
黄菊 Huang
李鹏 Li Peng
彭丽媛 Peng Liyuan
温家宝 Wen Jiabao
吴邦国 Wu Bangguo
习近平 Xi Jinping
曾庆红 Zeng Qinghong
暴政 Tyranny
达赖喇嘛 Dalai Lama
傅政华 FuZhengHua
傅政华 FuZhengHua
共产党 Communist party
共产党 Communist party
共产党 Communist party
热比娅·卡德尔 Rebiya Kadeer
吴邦国 Wu Bangguo
游行 Parade
政变 Coup
政变 Coup
朱镕基 Zhu
自焚 Self-burning
江泽民 Jiang
吕加平 Ping Lu Jiaguo
暴乱 Riot
罗干 Luo Gan
阴唇 Labia
支那 Shina
六合彩 LOTTO
六合彩 LOTTO
淫妇 Adulteress
阴户 Vagina
阴精 Sex fluid
阴门 Vulva
淫浪 Yinlang

Protected articles on Hudong Baike

Article title + Hudong link Machine translation Human translation / notes (if field is blank, translation to be confirmed)
苍井空 Sora Aoi porn star
蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen Taiwanese politician
草榴社区 Grass garnet Community Caoliu online forum
吴淑珍 Wu Shu-chen wife of Chen Shui-bian
维基百科 Wikipedia .
江泽民 Jiang Zemin .
李长春[中央政治局常委] Li Changchun [Politburo Standing Committee] .
李克强 Li Keqiang .
陈良宇 Chen Liangyu Shangai pol dismissed for corruption
赌博 Gambling .
朴善英 Park Sun-Young (Luna) Korean pop star
习仲勋 Xi Zhongxun father of Xi Jinping
习近平 Xi Jinping .
令计划 Orders Scheme
侯德建 Hou Jian
俞正声 Yu
刘云山[1] Liu Yunshan [1]
刘宾雁 Liu Binyan
刘延东 Liu Yandong
刘淇 Liu Qi
刘晓波 Liu Xiaobo
吴邦国 Wu Bangguo
周永康 Zhou Yongkang
回良玉 Hui Liangyu
太子党 Princelings
张德江 Zhang
张高丽 Zhang Gaoli
徐才厚 Xu Caihou
文字狱 Inquisition
文字狱 Inquisition
方励之 Fang Lizhi
方励之 Fang Lizhi
无国界记者 Reporters Without Borders
李源潮 Li Yuanchao
李瑞环 Li Ruihuan
李瑞环 Li Ruihuan
李长春[中央政治局常委] Li Changchun [Politburo Standing Committee]
李鹏[国务院前总理] Li [former Prime Minister of the State Council]
柴玲 Chai Ling
江泽民 Jiang
汪洋[中央政治局委员] Wang Yang [Politburo member]
温家宝 Wen Jiabao
王乐泉 Mr Wang
王兆国 Wang
王岐山 Wang Qishan
王有才 Wang Youcai
王乐泉 Mr Wang
王立军[原重庆市副市长] Wang Lijun [former vice mayor of Chongqing]
王维林 Wang Weilin
绝食 Fast
罗干 Luo Gan
罗干 Luo Gan
习近平 Xi Jinping
胡耀邦 Hu Yaobang
胡锦涛 Hu
莫言 Mo Yan
华国锋 Hua Guofeng
薄熙来 Bo Xilai
诺贝尔和平奖 Nobel Peace Prize
贾庆林 Jia Qinglin
贺国强 He Guoqiang
贾庆林 Jia Qinglin
转法轮 Zhuan Falun
达赖喇嘛 Dalai Lama
郭伯雄 Guo
陈光诚 Chen Guangcheng
马英九 Ma Ying-jeou
阿沛·阿旺晋美 Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme
《中华人民共和国宪法》 Constitution of the People
610办公室 610 Office
李鹏[国务院前总理] Li [former Prime Minister of the State Council]
中国共产党 Communist Party of China
世界维吾尔代表大会 World Uyghur Congress
世界维吾尔代表大会 World Uyghur Congress
彭丽媛 Peng Liyuan
中华人民共和国 People
中华民国 Republic of China
中华民国 Republic of China
人权 Human rights
何清涟 He Qinglian
共产党 Communist party
华国锋 Hua Guofeng
大跃进 Great Leap Forward
李登辉[台湾地区前领导人] Lee Teng-hui [former leader of Taiwan]
毛泽东 Mao Zedong
民主 Democracy
汶川大地震 Wenchuan earthquake
汶川大地震 Wenchuan earthquake
草泥马 Mud horse
百度 Baidu
口交 Oral sex
刘德华 Andy Lau
金正恩[金正日之子] Kim Jong-un [Kim Jong Il’s son]
微信 Micro-channel
《一路向西》 All the way west.
百度 Baidu
淘宝网 Taobao
性交 Sexual intercourse
淘宝网 Taobao
刘德华 Andy Lau
林志玲 Ling
文化大革命 Cultural Revolution
母亲节 Mother’s Day
性交体位 Sexual intercourse position
金瓶梅[古代小说] Golden Lotus [Ancient Novel]
周恩来 Zhou Enlai
法轮 Falun
林彪 Lin Biao
肛交 Anal
金正日 Kim Jong Il
陈光标 Chen cursor
刘志军 Liu Zhijun
互动百科:联系我们 Interactive Encyclopedia: Contact Us
射精 Ejaculation
毛新宇 Mao Xinyu
屌丝 Cock wire
李雪主 Master Li Xue
人体艺术 Body Art
刘少奇 Liu Shaoqi
胡春华 Hu Chunhua
邓力群 Deng Liqun
包皮 Foreskin
朱镕基 Zhu
广末凉子 Hirosue
中华人民共和国 People
妈祖 Matsu
三级片 Three pieces
维基百科 Wikipedia
上户彩 Aya Ueto
高虎城 Gao
脱衣舞 Striptease
朴槿惠 Park Geun-hye
马馼 Ma Wen
AV[成人影片] AV [Adult Video]
大阴唇 Labia majora
崔智友 Choi Ji-woo
北京地铁 Beijing Subway
坂本真绫 Sakamoto Maaya
大麻 Marijuana
孙艺珍 Son Ye Jin
推背图 Tui Bei Tu
王立军[原重庆市副市长] Wang Lijun [former vice mayor of Chongqing]
陈希同 Chen Xitong
三唑仑 Triazolam
奥特曼 Altman
邱毅 Chou Yi
六七暴动 1967 riots
女上位 Female host
慈禧太后 Empress Dowager Cixi
杨开慧 Kaihui
王丹 Wang Dan
高干子弟 Among the children
李丽珍 Loretta (Loletta) aka Racel Lee (actress)
中南海 Zhongnanhai
中国共产党 Communist Party of China
刘晓波 Liu Xiaobo
推背图 Tui Bei Tu
朱德 Zhu De
翁虹 Yvonne Yung
胡德平 Hu Deping
邓朴方 Deng Pufang
做爱 Sex
储波 Chu Bo
冷溶 Leng Rong
列确 Legqog
吗啡 Morphine
何厚铧 Edmund Ho
何鲁丽 He Luli
俞正声 Yu Zhengsheng
厉无畏 Li Wuwei
天安门 Tiananmen Square
姜异康 Jiang Yikang
姜恩柱 Jiang
孟学农 Meng Xuenong
成思危 Cheng Siwei
戴相龙 Dai Xianglong
文昌星 Wenchang star
曾培炎 Zeng Peiyan
朱云来 Mr Zhu
李肇星 Li Zhaoxing
杨白冰 Yang Bai Bing
梁保华 Liang Baohua
中华人民共和国中央军事委员会 PRC Central Military Commission
向巴平措 Qiangba
法轮 Falun
淫水 Sexual secretion
由喜贵 Xigui
胡星斗 Mr Hu
藏独 Tibetan separatist
郭金龙 Guo Jinlong
金人庆 Jin Renqing
陈炳德 Chen Bingde
隗福临 Kui Fulin
龙应台 Lung Ying-tai
AV[成人影片] AV [Adult Video]
K粉 K powder
黄菊 Huang
GCD GCD
藏族青年大会 Tibetan Youth Congress
达赖喇嘛 Dalai Lama
刘永清 Liu Yongqing
罗干 Luo Gan

This last table displays a list of all the nine characters or less (or four double-byte Chinese characters) keywords which successfully matched to an entry on Wikipedia, but when searched on Hudong or Baidu Baike, returned no matching results. As mentioned previously, the matching algorithm is still extremely simple, so some of these keywords may indeed have appropriate entries on Hudong or Baidu Baike. For instance, the table reports that the movie 戀夏500日 (500 Days of Summer) is not found on Baidu or Hudong. However, some manual digging uncovers that the movie is listed under the title 《和莎莫的500天》 and the Wikipedia one must be a Taiwan or Hong Kong-specific one. Thus, the below will no doubt contain false positives for terms it failed to find due to flawed searching on our part. Thus, the below is merely an initial stab at trying to uncover the content gaps in the two baike and will be refined in the coming months.

The first column is the keywords used to test, the third is the title of the Wikipedia article that was found (which may sometimes vary from the initial keyword depending on how Wikipedia interprets the keyword and handles the redirecting to what it thinks is the proper article), and the last two columns indicate whether or not that Baidu or Hudong located a matching article for the keyword.

Not surprisingly, a number of the entries appear to be related to Taiwan, which makes sense since the largest share of Wikipedia China readers and contributors come from Taiwan while Hudong and Baidu are primarily mainland China users. Thus, a number of Taiwan-related articles in Wikipedia China may not to considered noteworthy to mainland users, explaining why they are not found in Hudong or Baidu. However, others are more clearly omitted for political or prurient reasons.

The same caveat about the machine translations from above applies here. Do not disseminate the machine translations without first verifying if they are correct. We are in the process of confirming the translations in the coming weeks and months.

Articles found on Wikipedia China but not on Hudong or Baidu Baike

Keyword searched + Wikipedia link Machine translation of keyword Wikipedia title found Wikipedia title machine translation Human translation + notes (if field is blank, translation to be confirmed) On Baidu? On Hudong?
草榴社区 Grass garnet Community 草榴社区 Grass garnet Community Caoliu online community; forum involved with discussing Wenzhou train crash no
丁文雄 Dingwen Xiong 丁文雄 Dingwen Xiong expelled Vietnamese politician? no no
六四事件 June 4 incident 六四事件 June 4 incident Tiananmen Sq, 1989 no no
满族 Manchu 满族 Manchu ethnic minority no
法輪功 Falun Gong 法轮功 Falun Gong religion no no
齡記書店 Ling Kee 齡記書店 Ling Kee small HK bookstore no no
反共主义 Anti-communism 反共主义 Anti-communism . no
研勤科技 Maction Technologies 研勤科技 Maction Technologies Taiwan navigation company no no
PAPAGO! PAPAGO! 研勤科技 Maction Technologies . no
蔡瑞月 Tsai Jui-yueh 蔡瑞月 Tsai Jui-yueh Taiwanese dance pioneer no
莫莉花 Molly Flowers 莫莉花 Molly Flowers Chinese dissident no no
曾偉恩 Zeng Wayne 曾偉恩 Zeng Wayne Taiwanese baseball player no no
千甲車站 One thousand A station 千甲車站 One thousand A station no no
顺阳范氏 Shun Yang Fan 顺阳范氏 Shun Yang Fan no
徐寧凞 Seo Young-hee 徐寧熙 Seo Young-hee Korean actress no no
發正念 Fazhengnian 發正念 Fazhengnian Falun Gong meditation no no
許瑜真 Xu Yu True 許瑜真 Xu Yu True no no
世博車站 Expo Station 千甲車站 One thousand A station no no
竹科車站 Hsinchu Science Park Station 新莊車站 (新竹市) Shinjo Station (Hsinchu, Taiwan) no no
南阳范氏 Nanyang Fan 顺阳范氏 Shun Yang Fan no no
瘂弦 Ya Xian 瘂弦 Ya Xian no
北西摩島 North Seymour Island 北西摩島 North Seymour Island no no
平行計算 Parallel Computing 并行计算 Parallel Computing no no
维权运动 Rights movement 维权运动 Rights movement no no
鍾嘉欣 Linda 鍾嘉欣 Linda no no
維權運動 Rights movement 中国的人权维护运动 Maintenance of China’s human rights movement Weiquan movement: Chinese lawyers and activists defending civil rights no no
崔真理 CUI Truth 崔真理 CUI Truth no
丁子霖 Ding Zilin 丁子霖 Ding Zilin leader of Tiananmen Mothers no
七一遊行 July march 七一大遊行 The July 1 march annual Hong Kong pro-democracy march no no
七不讲 Seven do not speak 七不讲 Seven do not speak no
严家其 Yan Jiaqi 严家其 Yan Jiaqi no no
令谷 Order Valley 令谷 Order Valley no no
侯赛因江 Hussein Jiang 侯赛因江 Hussein Jiang no no
八九学运 1989 student movement 六四事件 June incident no no
六四 Sixty-four 六四事件 June incident no no
刘宾雁 Liu Binyan 刘宾雁 Liu Binyan no
司徒华 SZETO 司徒華 SZETO no
司徒華 SZETO 司徒華 SZETO no
吴弘达 Harry Wu 吳弘達 Harry Wu no no
嚴家其 Yan Jiaqi 严家其 Yan Jiaqi no no
姜维平 Jiang Weiping 姜维平 Jiang Weiping no
孙文广 Sun Wenguang 孙文广 Sun Wenguang no
封从德 Feng Congde 封从德 Feng Congde Chinese dissident no no
封從德 Letters from Germany 封从德 Letters from Germany no no
廖亦武 Liao Yiwu 廖亦武 Liao Yiwu no
张培莉 Zhangpei Li 张培莉 Zhangpei Li no
我的奋斗 Mein Kampf 我的奋斗 Mein Kampf no
新疆独立 Xinjiang independence 新疆独立运动 Xinjiang independence movement no no
新疆獨立 Xinjiang independence 新疆独立运动 Xinjiang independence movement no no
李洪志 Li Hongzhi 李洪志 Li Hongzhi no no
柴玲 Chai Ling 柴玲 Chai Ling no
梁海怡 Liang Haiyi 梁海怡 Liang Haiyi no no
楊建利 Yang Jianli 楊建利 Yang Jianli no no
法轮功 Falun Gong 法轮功 Falun Gong no no
洛桑森格 Lobsang Senge 洛桑森格 Lobsang Senge no
洪哲勝 Hong Zhesheng 洪哲勝 Hong Zhesheng no no
温云松 Wenyun Song 温云松 Wenyun Song no
王军涛 Wang Juntao 王军涛 Wang Juntao no no
王力雄 Wang Lixiong 王力雄 Wang Lixiong no
王炳章 Wang Bingzhang 王炳章 Wang Bingzhang no
王维林 Wang Weilin 王维林 Wang Weilin no
盘古乐队 Pangu Band 盤古樂團 Pangu Orchestra no no
盛雪 Sheng Xue 盛雪 Sheng Xue no no
真善忍 Truthfulness 法轮功 Falun Gong no no
胡温体制 Hu-Wen regime 胡温体制 Hu-Wen regime no no
自由门 Freegate 自由门 Freegate no
袁红冰 Yuan Hongbing 袁红冰 Yuan Hongbing no no
辛灏年 Xin Hao years 辛灏年 Xin Hao years no no
金盾工程 Golden Shield Project 金盾工程 Golden Shield Project no
陈光诚 Chen Guangcheng 陈光诚 Chen Guangcheng no
韩东方 Han Dongfang 韩东方 Han Dongfang no no
高智晟 Gao Zhisheng 高智晟 Gao Zhisheng no
魏京生 Wei Jingsheng 魏京生 Wei Jingsheng no no
鮑彤 Bao Tong 鲍彤 Bao Tong no no
鲍彤 Bao Tong 鲍彤 Bao Tong no no
黎安友 Nathan 黎安友 Nathan no no
08宪章 Charter 08 零八宪章 Charter 08 no no
花园软件 Garden Software 花园网 Garden Fence no no
西厢计划 West Wing plan 西厢计划 West Wing plan no no
GFW GFW 防火长城 Great Firewall no no
唐柏桥 Tang Baiqiao 唐柏桥 Tang Baiqiao no no
幽灵网 Ghost Network 幽灵网 Ghost Network no
噶倫赤巴 Kalon Tripa 噶倫赤巴 Kalon Tripa no no
北京之春 Beijing Spring 北京之春 Beijing Spring no no
华夏文摘 China Digest 华夏文摘 China Digest no no
吾尔开希 Wuerkaixi 吾尔开希 Wuerkaixi no no
吾爾開希 Wuerkaixi 吾尔开希 Wuerkaixi no no
四五行動 AFA 四五行動 AFA no
敏感人士 Sensitive persons 持不同政见者 Political dissident no no
日本地理 Japan Geography 日本地理 Japan Geography no
曹長青 Cao Changqing 曹長青 Cao Changqing no no
袁紅冰 Yuan Hongbing 袁红冰 Yuan Hongbing no no
零八宪章 Charter 08 零八宪章 Charter 08 no no
民主女神 Goddess of Democracy 民主女神 Goddess of Democracy no no
牛博网 Bullog Network 牛博网 Bullog Network no
佔領中環 Occupy Central 佔領中環 Occupy Central no
大紀元 The Epoch Times 大紀元 The Epoch Times no no
比特克 Beattock 比特克 Beattock no no
色情 Porn 色情 Porn no
花花公子 Playboy 花花公子 Playboy no
许志永 Xu Zhiyong 许志永 Xu Zhiyong no
谭作人 Tan Zuoren 谭作人 Tan Zuoren no
钓鱼岛 Diaoyu Islands 釣魚臺 Diaoyu Islands no
Anti-CNN Anti-CNN 四月网 April networks no no
SARS事件 SARS incident SARS事件 SARS incident no
鄧佳華 Deng Jiahua 鄧佳華 Deng Jiahua no
夜勤病棟 Night differential Ward 夜勤病棟 Night differential Ward no
鋼鐵人3 Iron Man 3 鋼鐵人3 Iron Man 3 no no
性交体位 Sexual intercourse position 性交体位 Sexual intercourse position no
北川杏树 Kitagawa apricot 北川杏树 Kitagawa apricot no
肛交 Anal 肛交 Anal no
鋼鐵人2 Iron Man 2 鋼鐵人2 Iron Man 2 no
屍行者 Corpse Walker 陰屍路 Inferi Road no no
井川ゆい Yui Igawa 井川由衣 Yui Igawa no no
戀曲寫真 Love Song Photo 戀曲寫真 Love Song Photo no no
S-Cute S-Cute S-Cute S-Cute no no
北条麻妃 Hojo Ma Princess 北条麻妃 Hojo Ma Princess no
山口昇 Yamaguchi Noboru 山口昇 Yamaguchi Noboru no
朱音唯 Zhu Yin Wei 朱音唯 Zhu Yin Wei no
十四K Fourteen K 14K 14K no
IU (歌手) IU (singer) IU (歌手) IU (singer) no no
飢餓遊戲 The Hunger Games 飢餓遊戲 The Hunger Games no
北川瞳 Hitomi Kitagawa 北川瞳 Hitomi Kitagawa no
後藤理沙 Goto Risa 後藤理沙 Goto Risa no
沈夢辰 Shen Meng Chen 沈夢辰 Shen Meng Chen no
愛情女僕 Love maid 愛情女僕 Love maid no
爆漫王。 Bakuman. 爆漫王。 Bakuman. no
金泰耎 Jintai pliable 金泰耎 Jintai pliable no no
成人电影 Adult Movies 成人电影 Adult Movies no
陰莖口交 Penis Fellatio 陰莖口交 Penis Fellatio no no
口內射精 Mouth ejaculation 口內射精 Mouth ejaculation no
习明泽 Xi Mingze 习近平 Xi Jinping no no
郝明莉 Hao Mingli 郝明莉 Hao Mingli no
废赵贵人 Waste Zhaogui people 廢貴人趙氏 Waste elegant Zhao no no
zh-yue zh-yue 粤语 Cantonese no no
成人影片 Adult Video 色情片 Porn no
緘默權 Right to silence 緘默權 Right to silence no
李鍾碩 Li Zhongshuo 李鍾碩 Li Zhongshuo no no
水菜麗 Mizuna Korea 水菜麗 Mizuna Korea no
畢書盡 Bi books do 畢書盡 Bi books do no no
V City V City V City V City no no
张宏堡 Zhang Hongbao 张宏堡 Zhang Hongbao no
成人网站 Adult Websites 成人网站 Adult Websites no
少年阿賓 Junior Abin 少年阿賓 Junior Abin no no
玩命關頭6 Fast and Furious 6 玩命關頭6 Fast and Furious 6 no no
西門夜說 Simon said the night 西門夜說 Simon said the night no no
飛虎出征 Tiger expedition 飛虎出征 Tiger expedition no
暗殺教室 Assassination classroom 暗殺教室 Assassination classroom no
瘋狂假面 Crazy Mask 瘋狂假面 Crazy Mask no
顏射 Bukkake 颜射 Bukkake no
陳艾熙 Chen Yixi 陳艾熙 Chen Yixi no
神鎗狙擊 Gunslinger sniper 神鎗狙擊 Gunslinger sniper no no
蘇門達臘 Sumatra 蘇門答臘 Sumatra no
北欧神话 Norse mythology 北欧神话 Norse mythology no
Tsubomi Tsubomi (AV女優) Lei (AV Actress) no no
黃山怡 Huangshan Yi 黃山怡 Huangshan Yi no
大橋未久 Not long Bridge 大橋未久 Not long Bridge no no
章粹吾 Zhang Cui I 章粹吾 Zhang Cui I no
中島春雄 Haruo Nakajima 中島春雄 Haruo Nakajima no no
呂宇俊 Lv Yujun 呂宇俊 Lv Yujun no no
大埔事件 Tai event 大埔事件 Tai event no no
嘉賢臺 Spectacle Taiwan 嘉賢臺 Spectacle Taiwan no no
電動扶梯 Escalators 電動扶梯 Escalators no
遺落戰境 Border war left behind 遺落戰境 Border war left behind no
8月 August 8 August no
BTOB BTOB BTOB BTOB no
Speak Now Speak Now 爱的告白 Confessions of Love no
Garie Garie Garie Garie no no
傳說生物 Legend of biological 传说生物列表 Legend biological List no no
YouPorn YouPorn YouPorn YouPorn no no
劉以豪 Liu Hao 劉以豪 Liu Hao no
橘子熊 Orange Bear 橘子熊 Orange Bear no no
汪蘇瀧 Wang Su Long River 汪蘇瀧 Wang Su Long River no
希志愛野 Xizhi Aino 希志愛野 Xizhi Aino no
冠军歌王 King of Champions 冠军歌王 King of Champions no
歐陽妮妮 Ouyang Nini 歐陽妮妮 Ouyang Nini no
飛虎II Tiger II 飛虎II Tiger II no
黃之鋒 Huang Feng 黃之鋒 Huang Feng no no
劉寅娜 Liu Yinna 劉寅娜 Liu Yinna no no
蘇怡賢 Su Yixian 蘇怡賢 Su Yixian no
蘇有朋 Alec 蘇有朋 Alec no
董智森 Dong Zhisen 董智森 Dong Zhisen no no
氣體行星 Gas planets 氣體巨行星 Gas giant planets no no
& & & & no
农历七月 Lunar July 农历七月 Lunar July no no
唐慧案 Hui Tang case 唐慧案 Hui Tang case no
關澤新一 Sekisawa new one 關澤新一 Sekisawa new one no no
陳伊凌 Chen Yiling 陳伊凌 Chen Yiling no no
史托雅 Shi Tuoya 史托雅 Shi Tuoya no no
无码视频 Uncensored Video 无码视频 Uncensored Video no no
藤原瞳 Hitomi Fujiwara 藤原瞳 Hitomi Fujiwara no
馮·迪索 Von Paradiso ·迪索 Von Paradiso no no
上海帮 Shanghai to help 上海帮 Shanghai to help no no
宏盟集團 Omnicom Group 宏盟集團 Omnicom Group no
羅嘉仁 Luo Jiaren 羅嘉仁 Luo Jiaren no
T.O.P. T.O.P. T.O.P. T.O.P. no
戀夏500日 500 days of Summer 戀夏500 500 days of Summer Taiwan or HK title? Baidu and Hudong have it as 和莎莫的500天. no no
江國慶案 Chiang Kuo-ching case 江國慶案 no no
犬種列表 Breed List 犬種列表 Breed List no no
蘇笠汶 Su Li Wen 蘇笠汶 Su Li Wen no
M Club M Club M Club no no
啟晴邨 Kai Ching Estate 啟晴邨 Kai Ching Estate no
大浦安娜 Oura Anna 大浦安娜 no
畢·彼特 Bi Pitt ·彼特 no
真愛配方 Love Recipe 真愛配方 no
豪斯的头 House’s head 豪斯的头 no
新楓之谷 New MapleStory 新楓之谷 no no
石首事件 Stone’s first event 石首事件 Stone’s first event no
萌學園五 Meng Gakuen five 萌學園五異界對決 no no
AV (電影) AV (movie) AV (電影) no no
TARI TARI TARI TARI TARI TARI TARI TARI no
五毛党 Fifty Cent Party 网络评论员 Network commentator no no
佛地魔 Voldemort 伏地魔 no
俞强声 YU strong voice 俞强声 YU strong voice no no
徐朱玄 Xu Zhu Xuan 徐朱玄 Xu Zhu Xuan no no
李艺真 Li Yi really 李艺真 Li Yi really no
海女姑娘 Female sea girl 海女小天 Female sea small day no
結界女王 Enchantment Queen 結界女王 Enchantment Queen no
金汎 Gold Pan 金汎 Gold Pan no
AKBINGO! AKBINGO! AKBINGO! no no
june 4th june 4th 六四事件 June incident no no
五毛蛋 Fifty Cent egg 五毛蛋争议 Fifty Cent egg controversy no no
师 (军队) Division (military) (军队) Division (military) no no
色情演員 Porn actor 色情演員 no no
陰道口 Vagina 陰道口 Vagina no
黃紫盈 Huang Ziying 黃紫盈 Huang Ziying no
LEE HI LEE HI 李遐怡 Li Yi-ya no no
The xx The xx The xx no
一世代 A generation 一世代 A generation no no
山達基 Scientology 山達基 Scientology no
幸運☆星 Lucky ? Star 幸運☆星 no
朴珊德拉 ??? pull 朴珊德拉 no no
歐陽娜娜 Ouyang Nana 歐陽娜娜 Ouyang Nana no
水嶋杏美 Mizushima apricot America 水嶋杏美 Mizushima apricot America no no
特攻聯盟 Kick Ass 特攻聯盟 Kick Ass no
蘇強文 Su Qiang Wen 蘇強文 Su Qiang Wen no
金宇彬 Jin Yubin 金宇彬 Jin Yubin no
金明洙 Jin Mingzhu 金明洙 no
韩寒困境 Han dilemma 韩寒被质疑造假事件 Han was challenged fraud case no no
刺蝟男孩 Hedgehog Boy 刺蝟男孩 no no
吳青峯 Wu’s 吳青峯 Wu’s no
城巴85P線 Citybus 85P line 城巴85P Citybus 85P line no
張友驊 ZHANG Hua 張友驊 no
心有花 Heart with flowers 心有花 Heart with flowers no
溫子仁 Wenzi Ren 溫子仁 Wenzi Ren no no
虎II坦克 Tiger II tanks II坦克 no
護聖院宮 Hushengyuangong 護聖院宮 Hushengyuangong no
A BEST A BEST A BEST no
BTOOOM! BTOOOM! BTOOOM! BTOOOM! no no
FOX娛樂台 FOX Showbiz FOX娛樂台 FOX Showbiz no
Futtminx Futtminx Tuttminx Tuttminx no no
于正昇 In n l 于正昇 no
南波杏 Namba apricot 南波杏 no
咲-Saki- Saki-Saki- -Saki- Saki-Saki- no
成人動畫 Adult animation 成人動畫 Adult animation no
新發邨 San Fat Estate 新發邨 San Fat Estate no no
朴修映 Pu Xiu Ying 朴修映 Pu Xiu Ying no no
李遐怡 Li Yi-ya 李遐怡 Li Yi-ya no no
村上里沙 Risa Murakami 竹內紗里奈 no
林百貨 Forest department 林百貨 no
真白希實 Really white Heshbon 真白希實 Really white Heshbon no
绘色千佳 Chika color painting 绘色千佳 Chika color painting no
聯發科技 MediaTek 聯發科技 MediaTek no no
西鐵綫 West Rail Line 西鐵綫 West Rail Line no
鍾麗緹 Christy 鍾麗緹 Christy no no
Waking Up Waking Up 甦醒 (共和世代專輯) no
台灣論壇 Taiwan Forum 台灣論壇 Taiwan Forum no
天兵公園 Creation of the park 天兵公園 Creation of the park no no
崔東昱 Cuidong Yu 崔東昱 Cuidong Yu no no
手交 Handjob 手交 Handjob no
燒夷彈 Napalm bombs 凝固汽油弹 Napalm no
瑪雅曆 Mayan calendar 瑪雅曆 Mayan calendar no
直通运行 Run through 直通运行 Run through no
網路性交 Internet Sex 網路性交 Internet Sex no no
若宮莉那 That Wakamiya Li 若宮莉那 no
蔡雪瑩 Cai Xueying 蔡雪瑩 Cai Xueying no no
超級偶像8 Super Idol 8 超級偶像8 Super Idol 8 no no
趙權 Jo Kwon 趙權 Jo Kwon no
長沙灣站 Cheung Sha Wan Station 長沙灣站 no
高志超 Gao Chao 高志超 Gao Chao no
九评 Nine Commentaries 九評 Nine Commentaries no no
共军 Troops 共軍 Troops no no
共狗 Of the dog 共匪 Bandits no no
兽交 Bestiality 動物戀 Animal Love no no
刘荻 Liu Di 刘荻 Liu Di no
办证 Accreditation 办假证 Do false no no
吞精 Swallow 口內射精 Mouth ejaculation no
咸片 Salty piece 色情片 Porn no no
妓男 Male prostitutes 男妓 Prostitutes no
射颜 Shot Yan 颜射 Bukkake no no
巨奶 Giant milk 巨乳 Boobs no no
人獸交 Bestiality 動物戀 Animal Love no
刘贤斌 Liu Xianbin 刘贤斌 Liu Xianbin no no
办假证 Do false 办假证 Do false no no
北高联 North Gaolian 北京高校学生自治联合会 Beijing College Student Government Association no no
华雪和 China snow and 华雪和 China snow and no no
吴扬明 Wu Yang Ming 吴扬明 Wu Yang Ming no
呼喊派 Shouters 呼喊派 Shouters no
圣辉洛 Sheng Hui Luo 聖輝洛 Sheng Hui Luo no no
姬胜德 Ji Shengde 姬胜德 Ji Shengde no
小鸡巴 Small Cock 阴茎 Penis no no
干你娘 Dry your mother 幹你娘 Dry your mother no no
庞维勒 Pangwei Le 西奥多·庞维勒 Theodore Pangwei Le no
徐勤先 Xu Qin first 徐勤先 Xu Qin first no
怯口活 Cowardly mouth live 倒口 Inverted mouth no no
李常受 Lee 李常受 Lee no
李志绥 Li Zhisui 李志绥 Li Zhisui no
4月03日 03-Apr 4月03日 03-Apr no no
71遊行 71 march 七一大遊行 The July 1 march no no
89运动 89 Sports 六四事件 June incident no no
一中一台 One China, one Taiwan 一邊一國 Each side no no
一党专制 One-party dictatorship 一党制 One-party system no no
三人性交 Threesome 三人性行为 Trio sex no no
五四事件 May incident 五四运动 Fourth Movement no no
人造阴道 Artificial vagina 人工陰道 Artificial vagina no no
八四事件 Eighty-four event 香港的士罷駛事件 Hong Kong taxi strikes no no
北京政权 Beijing regime 中华人民共和国 People no no
卢多维西 Ludovisi 卢多维西 Ludovisi no no
地方召会 Local churches 召會 Church no no
大陸當局 Chinese authorities 中華人民共和國政府 PRC Government no no
天下围攻 World siege 百萬人民倒扁運動 Million people fell flat movement no no
小江调水 Small river diversion 小江调水 Small river diversion no no
巴爾幹炮 Balkan gun M61火神式機砲 M61 Vulcan cannon no no
希望之声 Sound of Hope 希望之声国际广播电台 Sound of Hope Radio no no
干你老母 Dry your mother 幹你娘 Dry your mother no no
新闻管制 Press Control 新闻自由 Freedom of the press no no
毛匪 Hair bandit 毛泽东 Mao Zedong no no
油外泄 Oil leakage 油外洩 Oil leakage no no
淫水 Sexual secretion 陰道分泌液 Vaginal fluids no
獸交 Bestiality 動物戀 Animal Love no no
王文怡 Wang Wenyi 王文怡 Wang Wenyi no no
維基揭密 Wiki Revealed 維基解密 WikiLeaks no no
维基揭密 Wiki Revealed 維基解密 WikiLeaks no no
网络封锁 Internet blockade 互联网审查 Internet censorship no no
美分党 Cents Party 网络特工 Network agents no
肏你妈 Fuck your mother 幹你娘 Dry your mother no no
肏你媽 Fuck your mother 幹你娘 Dry your mother no no
胡海峰 Hu Haifeng 胡海峰 Hu Haifeng no
胡石根 Hu Shi root 胡石根 Hu Shi root no no
茉莉革命 Jasmine Revolution 茉莉花革命 Jasmine Revolution no no
草你妈 Grass your mother 幹你娘 Dry your mother no no
蒙汗药 Drugged 蒙汗药 Drugged no
虐肛 Anal abuse 肛交 Anal no no
血房地图 Blood House Map 血房地图 Blood House Map no no
被立王 Be king 被立王 Be king no no
裙底春 Skirts spring 裙底風光 Skirts scenery no no
裙底風光 Skirts scenery 裙底風光 Skirts scenery no no
裙底风光 Skirts scenery 裙底風光 Skirts scenery no no
铁血旗 Jagged flag 十八星旗 Eighteen Star flag no no
颜射 Bukkake 颜射 Bukkake no
鸡巴 Cock 陽具 Penis no no
大纪元 The Epoch Times 大紀元 The Epoch Times no no
共惨党 Total miserable party 共匪 Bandits no no
温影帝 Wen winner 温家宝 Wen Jiabao no no
June 4th June 4th 六四事件 June incident no no
藏青会 TYC 西藏青年大會 Tibetan Youth Congress no
程映虹 Cheng Yinghong 程映虹 Cheng Yinghong no no
动态网 Dynamic Network 自由门 Freegate no
胡海清 Hu Haiqing 胡海清 Hu Haiqing no no
九評 Nine Commentaries 九評 Nine Commentaries no no
民阵 SNF 民間人權陣線 Civil Human Rights Front no no
土共 Total soil 香港親共人士 Hong Kong’s pro-people no
团派 Tuanpai 團派 Tuanpai no no
希望之聲 Sound of Hope 希望之声国际广播电台 Sound of Hope Radio no no
辛子陵 Xin Ziling 辛子陵 Xin Ziling no
学运 Student movement 學生運動 Student movement no no
赵连海 Zhao drafted 赵连海 Zhao drafted no
北京当局 Beijing authorities 北京政府 Beijing Government no no
高自联 High self-Union 北京高校学生自治联合会 Beijing College Student Government Association no no
何德普 He Depu 何德普 He Depu no no
红色恐怖 Red Terror 红色恐怖 Red Terror no no
李旺阳 Li Wangyang 李旺陽事件 Li Wangyang event no no
民主墙 Democracy Wall 民主墙 Democracy Wall no no
大陆当局 Chinese authorities 中華人民共和國政府 PRC Government no no
反攻大陆 Retake the mainland 反攻大陸 Retake the mainland no no
少年阿宾 Junior Abin 少年阿賓 Junior Abin no no
国殇之柱 Pillar of Shame 國殤之柱 Pillar of Shame no
八九學運 1989 student movement 六四事件 June incident no no

Next steps

As the matching mechanism appears to work, expanding the keyword list is necessary to start building a larger database for analysis. However, at some point, as the keywords become ever more obscure and less common, we’ll no doubt see diminishing returns after expanding the keyword list too far.

Using the other variables we’ve collected will also make for interesting analysis later on. For example, models could be created to predict what kinds of articles are most likely to be protected, or for spotting articles that have abnormally small numbers of edits and article lengths. A discussion of what users are trying to express when they vote a particular entry as helpful would also be worthwhile. For instance, the most liked article on Hudong was one for a banking executive while the top ones on Baidu are mostly pop-related: Jacky Wu, Michael Jackson, the Japanese manga Detective Conan, singer Yang Mi, Jay Chou, and… Mao Zedong, with over 236,000 thumbs ups–though all of them were blown out of the water by the Korean group 2NE1, whose Baidu Baike article was liked nearly 2 million times. What are users trying to say when they mark something as helpful by clicking the thumbs up icon on each baike service? For instance, what can we conclude from the fact that more people have classified Bo Xilai’s entry on Baidu and Hudong as “useful” than they have for Xi Jinping’s?  Should we think of “likes” for particular pages as an alternative way netizens can actively or passively signal their endorsement of a topic’s existence or article’s sentiment even if the content is drastically different from a more “neutral” source like Wikipedia?

By looking not only at what content and data doesn’t exist on baike, but also at the content that does, this project will investigate what knowledge and information is fit for public display. If articles are shorter on Hudong and Baidu, what information do they carry? Does this information reveal anything about the authors’ intentions? By examining the topics and articles that are left visible in these baike and considering the motivations behind those who seek out, view, edit, and approve of these articles, this project hopes to offer a more nuanced view of the typical narratives about censorship in China. Trying to understand what sorts of expressions netizens are making via these online encyclopedias, despite whatever censorship might be taking place, is as interesting as the potential censorship itself. This project will hopefully push us to once again consider the many complexities when discussing information control in environments where oversight of content has been decentralized to companies and users–an environment which makes it increasingly harder to identify traditional instances of censorship.


1. If you search for most general topics on Baidu, links to Baidu images, search, videos, shopping, bulletin boards, answers, and its own encyclopedia are among the top results. For example, here’s a search for 手机 (cell phone): Baidu links make up more than half of the first page of results, including a hit to Baike. When you search for celebrities and political figures, Baidu Baike is again always among the top results, if not the very first one. Hudong is often not found on the first page of results–if at all. Here’s a search for Xi Jinping. Notice the message at the top in bold (根据相关法律法规和政策,部分搜索结果未予显示。) stating that the results have been filtered. Those that are returned are all state media links (Xinhua, People’s Daily, China Daily, CNTV/CCTV)–except for Baike which inherits the top spot. Even for searches of people that are not filtered, Baike still almost always gets top billing and Hudong is often relegated to later in the results–though often not due to any failure on Hudong’s part. For example, the same search for 周恩来 (Zhou Enlai) on Google has both Hudong and Baidu Baike in the top three results (Wikipedia garners the top spot). All this is to say that while giving preference to one’s own services is not some unprecedented online tactic (see the outcry in 2010 when Google tweaked its searches to prioritize YouTube and other internal Google-owned content above other comparable websites), it does seem like there is something inherently baked into Baidu’s search algorithm that either intentionally or unintentionally penalizes Hudong’s articles compared to Baidu Baike and others. However, more rigorous examination is needed before a conclusion about how real or serious that penalty can be made.

2. For example, here’s an article on cloud seeding that was featured on Hudong on August 7, 2013. It’s section on the costs of cloud seeding are copied word for word in Baidu Baike on the same topic (starts with “一种是用飞机把干冰等冷却剂撒播到云中”). If you look at the version histories, the Hudong version that contains this section predates Baidu by nearly four years. For Wikipedia copying, take a look at each respective encyclopedia’s entry on 利玛窦 (Matteo Ricci). Here’s a comparison of what is shared between Wikipedia and Hudong today, and Wikipedia and Baidu Baike today. As you can see from the matching bits, Wikipedia and Hudong share much greater overlap, and if you go through the historical records, you can identify that Hudong added the majority of such material in the May 11, 2008 edit. If you take the Apr 27, 2008 version of the article from Wikipedia and compare the two, you’ll notice just how closely the two mirror each other. The same can be done with Baidu Baike: a comparison of the differences between the Aug 29, 2006 Wikipedia article on Matteo Ricci and the Sept 6, 2006 Baidu Baike one. The overlap is stark and damning.

Again, this is not rigorous at all, merely a few cases that I have stumbled upon and require more rigorous examination before deciding whether the claims of plagiarism by Baidu and Hudong are unfounded, incidental (a few novice users unclear about citations), or systemic (either intentionally directed or through willful ignorance and refusal to correct it by those in charge).

Jason Q. Ng is the Google Policy Fellow at The Citizen Lab and author of Blocked on Weibo, a book about censorship and sensitive topics in Chinese social media. You can read more of his work at his blog or follow him on Twitter.