(Newswire.net— October 7, 2019) — The online encyclopedia called Wikipedia is the largest collection of human knowledge and perhaps the greatest achievement of the digital age. Anyone can participate in writing texts, which are available for free to anyone on the Internet.
There has been, however, an editorial war on the platform between China and Taiwan for some time now, in which Taiwan’s definition on Wikipedia changes several times a day. At one point it is a “state in East Asia” and in the next “a province of the People’s Republic of China”.
This is just one in a series of editorial conflicts on Wikipedia: a page dedicated to protests in Hong Kong recorded a total of 65 changes in just one day. Is it about “protesters” or “rebels”?
In the description of Senkaku Island, it says that “the islands are in East Asia” and the Chinese equivalent was supplemented earlier this year by the phrase: “China territory.”
The “East Asian state” has disappeared from Wikipedia numerous times over the past few days due to Chinese intervention.
In the English version, the Dalai Lama is a Tibetan refugee, in the Chinese version: he is Chinese in exile.
Disagreements are present all the time on Wikipedia, but Jamie Lin, a member of the board of directors of Wikimedia Taiwan, however, thinks the story with Taiwan is something else.
Officials and academics in China have urged the government and citizens to systematically correct what they consider to be anti-Chinese prejudices on Wikipedia.
Should a particular community be defined as “the Taiwanese people descended from Han Dynasty” or as “a subgroup of Han Chinese born in Taiwan”? One of the fiercest battles is waged around linguistic territory of in the online wiki space.
The attacks are directed against the local Wikipedia author community.
“Some have told us that their personal information was released because they are of a different opinion,” Lin says.
According to Lin, some were threatened with death, and one of the group’s members on the Wikimedia channel Telegram was reportedly told that “police will enjoy your mother’s forensic report”.
China’s Ministry of Defense announced in July that China is ready to go to war “if there are people who would dare to try to separate Taiwan from the country,” accusing the US of undermining global stability and condemning the sale of American weapons to an island that Beijing considers part of its territory.
The AP recalls that the Pentagon announced earlier this month that the State Department had authorized the sale of weapons to Taiwan, which include tanks and about $ 2.2 billion in arsenal as well as Stinger missiles.
China responded to the announcement by saying it would impose sanctions on US companies involved in the deal.