List of Words Censored By Search Engines in the People's Republic of China

The People’s Republic of China tends to maintain a strict threshold on their policies governing the list of words censored by search engines in the People's Republic of China. Their citizens are not permitted by law to search for certain items on the Internet. This is a form of Internet censorship that in a sense protects citizens in the mainland of China from reviewing any material the country may view as being undesirable.

Set in place are a list of words censored by search engines in the People's Republic of China that the government of China feels may contribute to unconventional or dissonant behavior should any citizen of the country be exposed to it. There words on this list of words censored by the search engines in the People's Republic of China that may be considered okay by other countries, however the People’s Republic of China has a zero tolerance for behavior potentially influenced by the Internet.

What Is the Aim of the Censorship?

On one hand, the aim of the censorship is to completely remove access of those websites from a search engine’s search results. For example, if you were to do an Internet search in America, just about anything that you could imagine would come up that is relevant to any or all of the search terms that you typed in. In the People’s Republic of China if you were to try and do a search for an article that may have been written and distributed through a BBC news outlet, more than likely the search results would be blocked. 

The government of the People’s Republic of China tends to block out websites and web content that may be politically dissonant or in disagreement with the ideals of the government. Currently there are a few United States colleges and universities whose websites are currently blocked. Whether for the overall content or for the political and ideological ideals expressed, the government of the People’s Republic of China reserves the right to block Internet content that they deem inappropriate for their citizens.

The government in the People’s Republic of China has even gone as far as to house a location of the famous search engine Google in the People’s Republic of China.  The decision to have a branch of Google in China makes it a bit easier to regulate the content to which Internet surfers in China have access. If a surfer uses one of the “sensitive keywords” during their Internet search session, an automatic “safe search” feature that limits the page results will turn on.

Sample List of Words Censored by Search Engines in the People's Republic of China

Below is a list of words that are currently blocked or censored in the People’s Republic of China regarding Internet searches. These keywords range from general concepts, events, dissonant news, dissonant groups, pornography and other subjects as well.

• Despotism, anti—communist, communist bandits, genocide
• Oppression, reeducation through labor, red terror, evil
• Sino-Russian border, Tiananmen Square Massacre, Chinese democracy movement
• June 4th , Shanwei, yilishen, YTHT BBS
• Xinjiang independence, Tibetan independence, exile, Government of Tibet in Exile
• Dalai, gedhun choekyi hyima, tibettalk
• Democracy, Chinese Democracy Justice Party, China Democratic League
• Tiananmen Mothers, Wei Jingsheng, Wang Dan, Chai Ling, Wu’er Kaixi
• Harry Wu, Szeto Wah, Fang Zhoizi, Jung Chang, Jiang Luo, Zhao Ziyang
• Bao Tong, Huang Ju, Dacankao, Boxun, China News Digest, China News Net
• Epoch, Epoch Times, Voice of America
• Falun, lun gong, lun da, dafa, Great Law, hongzhi disciple
• Truthfulness, compassion, forbearance, minghui
• Tibet Times, Playboy, the nine commentaries on the communist party
• “The Private Life of Chairman MNao”, Li Zhisui, Shina

If you ever plan to visit the People’s Republic of China, you will find that if you try to search for anything relative to the word “democracy” including any businesses with the word in it will be blocked. Additionally, you should be careful about any searches that you would normally do in America, because there is a possibility that many of those keywords will be blocked as well.