Baidu launches self-censoring 'Chinese Wikipedia' (AFP)

BEIJING (AFP) - China's biggest Internet search engine Baidu has launched a self-censoring online encyclopedia modelled on the US-based website , which is blocked by Beijing.

Entries on Baidupedia, the new service from Nasdaq-listed Baidu.com launched last month, are heavily self-censored to avoid offending the Chinese government.

Searches conducted on Thursday for the banned spiritual movement "Falungong" or for "Dalai Lama" -- in both Chinese and English -- yielded no results but generated the message: "The page cannot be displayed."

Baidu's chairman and chief executive Robin Li told Britain's Financial Times newspaper his online encyclopedia was modelled after Wikipedia, but said he was unaware Beijing had banned the Florida-based reference website.

"I certainly hope our encyclopedia will be the most authoritative one for any Chinese users," Li was quoted as saying.

"The initial reaction has been very positive, so we are quite confident that we will quickly become number one in this area."

The Chinese-language version of Wikipedia, which relies on voluntary users and contributors to ensure its neutrality and objectivity, was enjoying soaring popularity until Beijing blocked access to the site late last year.

Beijing bans many portals to eliminate "harmful" content including pornography and violence from their websites.

But it also categorizes politically sensitive material and some religious content, such as those from the Falungong, as "harmful" and regularly shuts down websites containing such information.

Baidupedia bars users from including any "malicious evaluation of the current national system", any "attack on government institutions" or even "promotion of a dispirited or negative view of life", the FT said.

Company officials at Baidu could not be immediately reached for comment.

Baidu.com holds a leading share of China's search market at 37.4 percent.

Known as "Chinese Google", its stock sale in August on Nasdaq was one of the year's hottest initial public offerings -- with its shares surging 354 percent in one day.

Vying for China's huge market of some 111 million Internet users, Western Internet giants such as Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google operating in China have been censoring their content in exchange for market access.

Google sparked controversy in January when it launched its new service for China, google.cn, after agreeing to censor websites and content banned by the nation's propaganda chiefs.

Yahoo came under fire last year for supplying information to the Chinese government that led to the arrest of Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was jailed for 10 years for passing on a government censorship order through his Yahoo e-mail account.

As part of China's increasing efforts to control the Internet, authorities are also employing sophisticated filtering technology, forcing Internet cafes to register users and Internet service providers to reveal user information.

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