BEIJING \u2014 China is compiling a free online encyclopedia to rival Wikipedia, but it will likely give only Beijing\u2019s official version of sensitive historical events, and the public won\u2019 t be able to write or edit it. […] scholars and experts hand…<\/b>
\nBEIJING \u2014 China is compiling a free online encyclopedia to rival Wikipedia, but it will likely give only Beijing\u2019s official version of sensitive historical events, and the public won\u2019 t be able to write or edit it.
Instead, scholars and experts hand-picked by Beijing say only they will be able to make entries \u2014 the latest example of the Chinese government\u2019s efforts to control information available on the Internet.
The scholars say truth is their guiding light, and their editing and review process is a rigorous one. If there is a difference of opinion, a committee should figure it out, said Zhang Baichun, chief editor of the history of science and technology section.
\u201cOf course, science does not come from democratic votes, to convince others you will have to present the most convincing proof, \u201d he said.
The effort to compile 300,000 entries that span science, literature, politics and history is being led by the ruling Communist Party \u2019s central propaganda department, which guides public opinion through instructions to China\u2019s media, Internet companies and publishing industry as well as overseeing the education sector. They have instructed the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, known for its offline Chinese Encyclopedia, to produce it.
The ruling party has struggled to manage public opinion in the Internet age, when citizens can comment on news and topics of outrage and post photos of protests on social media \u2014 at least until such messages are scrubbed away or rendered unsearchable by censors. China also regularly blocks overseas sites including Facebook and Twitter, and has periodically blocked Wikipedia\u2019s English and Chinese versions. Currently, the Chinese Wikipedia is inaccessible in the mainland.
Jiang Lijun, senior editor at the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, said they plan to have entries on political leaders, the history of the Communist Party, and subjects including virtual reality, artificial intelligence and the European Union .
The online Chinese Encyclopedia will focus primarily on entries that are less likely to change as opposed to recent events, and with academic value, \u201cwhile also trying to strike a balance between that, being timely and what people are searching for, \u201d she said. She declined to comment on how events that are politically sensitive in China, like the Cultural Revolution and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, would be treated.
Qiao Mu, an independent media analyst in Beijing, said the Chinese Encyclopedia would be \u201cquite different\u201d from Wikipedia because of the need to toe the line on political taboos.
\u201cIf it\u2019s not blocked in China, the publisher must accept censorship, either self-censorship or censored by authorities, \u201d he said.
He said the encyclopedia would likely present a single, official version of sensitive historical events, and exclude items like the Tiananmen crackdown and the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual group, which \u201cnever exist on the Internet.\u201d
The publishing house behind the Chinese Encyclopedia is paying 20,000 scholars and experts from universities and research institutes to write entries and it is slated to go online next year. Jiang said initially the encyclopedia will just be in Chinese, but they are also doing research to see how viable an English version would be.
Jiang said they met with a team from San Francisco\u2019s Wikipedia to learn from their experience.
Wikipedia is edited and maintained by hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world, and has more than 40 million articles encompassing nearly 300 languages. More than 900,000 entries are in Chinese, compared with more than 5 million in English.
\u201cThere is Chinese content on Wikipedia too, but sometimes it is not as accurate as it could be, \u201d said Jiang.
Jiang said that as Wikipedia\u2019s content is generated by users, they can create more entries faster. \u201cBut we try to eliminate self-promotion and inaccuracy as much as possible.\u201d
Zhang, the professor of history of science and technology, said the online version will make it easier to reach more people, particularly young readers.
To create the history of science and technology entries, Zhang said professors from the Chinese Academy of Sciences\u2019 Institute of Natural Sciences first hold meetings with veterans and young experts in their fields to form a committee. The committee will then find the most authoritative person on the topic to write the draft, including sometimes foreign experts, said Zhang, who is director of the institute.
The draft is reviewed by a section chief editor and then the committee.
\u201cIf there is a difference of opinion, all deputy and chief editors should participate in the discussion and figure it out together, \u201d Zhang said. \u201cWe will reason things out with the author until we reach an agreement, or change the author.\u201d<\/p>\n

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