After a year ban Wikipedia accessible from China

The online encyclopaedia website reappears on Chinese computers. It is not clear what, after a year, prompted the change. Many words Beijing considers politically sensitive like 'democracy' and 'June 4' remain off limits.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia was accessible on mainland computers yesterday after being blocked for more than a year. The main page of the Chinese-language version of Wikipedia could be displayed and searches done, but queries for subjects taboo to the Chinese leadership, such as 'democracy' and 'June 4', remained blocked.

Beijing routinely blocks access to websites it deems subversive and filters internet pages for politically sensitive words. For instance, the BBC and AsiaNews are blocked.

It was unclear why Wikipedia, blocked since October last year, was again accessible.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she had not heard of reports regarding Wikipedia, but added that Beijing supported the development of the internet and had 123 million users, making it the world's second-largest internet market. But, Ms Jiang said: "We manage the internet according to our laws and regulations".

Many human rights groups have accused Western internet companies of compromising their principles by censoring searches and blog titles in order to do business in China.

Wikipedia's case seems different. Its founder, Jimmy Wales, has preached a strategy of patience in dealing with authorities and showed that if a foreign company stood firm, Beijing would yield.

Moreover, despite obstacles a small community of Chinese users has used proxy servers and other tricks to gain access to "problem" sites.

For some analysts, the real issue is not so much the encyclopaedia's content that worries the Chinese government, but Wikipedia's open editorial process, which they say has a community-building effect among armchair editors who can quickly mobilise to create content.