Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Han Chinese

2018-04-11T23:26:48Z

ChinesePaleocon: Changed wrong Chinese character

The '''Han Chinese''' ([[Chinese]]: 汉族; [[Hanyu pinyin]]: Hànzú) are the main ethnic group in [[China]] and [[Taiwan]], consisting around 92% of the total population of these two countries, and nearly 20% of the total world population. They are the largest single ethnic group in the world.

The Han are usually referred to as "ethnic Chinese" or just simply "Chinese" in other countries. Their self-designation comes from the famous [[Han dynasty]].

==Language==
The main language of the Han is [[Mandarin]], though there are many dialects and sub-groups, such as [[Cantonese]], [[Hakka]], [[Wu Chinese|Wu]], [[Min Nan]], and many more.

==Religion==
The main religion among the Han is a mix of [[Buddhism]], specifically the [[Mahayana Buddhism|Mahayana]] sect, and [[Confucianism]]. There are also many [[Taoism|Taoist]]s. There is now a growing [[Christianity|Christian]] population, and a very tiny [[Judaism|Jewish]] population, most prominently in [[Kaifeng]]. Muslim Chinese are called "[[Hui people|Hui]]."

==Overseas Chinese==
Outside of China, there are over 30 million people of Han descent. They are called "overseas Chinese" (Mandarin: ''Huaqiao''). They are found in countries like the [[United States]], [[Britain]], [[Japan]], [[Singapore]], [[Canada]], and many other industrialized Western nations.

[[Category:Chinese Ethnicities]]

User:ChinesePaleocon

2018-01-21T21:59:40Z

ChinesePaleocon: Description on user page

I am a Chinese Conservative and Southern Baptist living in Dallas Texas. I believe in borders, language, and culture.

Michael Savage

2018-01-21T21:58:10Z

ChinesePaleocon: Changed wording

[[Image:Michaelsavage.jpg|right|thumb|Michael Savage]]
'''Dr. Michael Savage''', (born Michael Alan Weiner, March 31, 1942) is a conservative talk show host.<ref name="sourcewatch">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_Savage SourceWatch</ref> Savage opposes [[statism]], [[unlimited immigration]] and [[Islamic fundamentalism]]. He defends America’s national sovereignty and distinct cultural identity. In short, he is a nationalist who champions blood-and-soil conservatism.<ref>[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/26/obamas-assault-on-conservative-speech/ By Jeffrey T. Kuhner-The Washington Times 7:20 p.m., Thursday, May 26, 2011]</ref>

Savage is the author of 19 books, including four New York Times Best Sellers: ''The Political Zoo'', ''Liberalism is a Mental Disorder'', ''The Savage Nation'' and ''The Enemy Within.'' Many of his books have been on [[botany]] and [[Nutritional Ethnomedicine]].<ref name="sourcewatch" /> He holds doctorates in both economics and botany which he received from the University of California, Berkeley.<ref>http://www.thesavagemichael.com/biography.html</ref>

Savage is generally known to be more outspoken, or more direct, than other conservative commentators. Some view this as his way of driving home points to liberals, who he seems to view as cynical. Other conservatives are strongly against such methods. However, many do find them to be effective and count themselves as fans of his show, which was named by ''Talkers Magazine'' as the third most influential talk show in America.<ref>[http://66.227.50.219/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=44 Talkers Magazine 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in America, 2008]</ref>

In March 2004, he began a televised version of ''The Savage Nation'' on [[MSNBC]], but was let go<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-07-07-msnbc-fires-savage_x.htm MSNBC fires Michael Savage after anti-gay comments</ref> after telling a prank caller who identified himself as a, "sodomite," in Savage's words, to, "get [[AIDS]] and die."<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdtw-WDSzzI</ref> Savage explained that he was making a personal insult to a prank caller, who he considered to be harassing him, not to all gays. This is consistent with his treatment of other prank callers.

In 2007, he won the Freedom of Speech award from ''Talkers Magazine'', a [[talk radio]] trade industry publication.

His nationally syndicated radio show is called, ''Savage Nation''. In the early weeks of June 2007, Savage spent almost every minute of his show lambasting [[George W. Bush]]'s proposed immigration reform bill. Savage takes credit<ref>Monday, June 25, 2007, "The Savage Nation," 750 KPRC (Houston).</ref> for the defeat of the bill. He has also been credited with coining the terms, "compassionate conservative," and, "Islamo-fascist," which have gained wider usage in other circles.<ref>[http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/?pageId=10 World Net Daily Bio on Michael Savage]</ref>

During the introduction and for the bumper music on his radio program, Savage often uses music by the [[heavy metal]] bands [[Metallica]] and [[Rammstein]].<ref>[http://www.nopactalent.com/speakers/Michael-Savage/1271 Michael Savage Bio at Nopac Talent]</ref>

==Banned in Britain==
On May 5, 2009 Savage was placed on a list of persons who have either called for attacks against the British government, or have attacked and murdered individuals based on political or religious hatred; others on the list included Jewish nationalist Mike Guzovsky; imprisoned Russian skinhead leaders Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky; and Islamic leaders Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi, Amir Siddique, Abdul Ali Musa, Samir Al Quntar and Nasr Javed. Citing the hypocrisy of Britain in general, and British liberalism in particular when they stand by and listen to the calls for murder and destruction by Islamic fanatics ''within'' Britain, Savage said,
:"How can a nation put me on a list and leave hate preachers in England who say that we're going to kill all of you? We're going to convert all of you to Islam. How is it possible that those hate preachers can't be deported from Britain, but I can be banned from Britain? People who advocate actual murder cannot be deported from Britain. How is it that liberalism has gotten so distorted and cowardly?"<ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97127</ref>

Knowing that his written and recorded record has never included such urgings, Savage responded by suing several Britons, including Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the individual who "redefined" terrorism in Britain, and was responsible for putting Savage's name on the list.<ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97134</ref> She resigned her ministerial position soon thereafter and went on to lose her Parliamentary seat a year later, although this was largely due to her involvement in the Common Expenses Scandal rather than Savage's actions.<ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1274495/UK-ELECTION-RESULTS-2010-Jacqui-Smith-expenses-scandal-MPs-lose-seats.html?ito=feeds-newsxml</ref>

Savage wrote an account of the ordeal, ''Banned in Britain'',<ref>https://www.savageonlinestore.com/index.jsp</ref><ref>http://www.amazon.com/Banned-Britain-Beating-Liberal-Blacklist/dp/1427642532</ref> and as of May 2011 he is still on the list.<ref>http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/files/filesSavage/savageukletter.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=177961</ref>

==Michael Savage lexicon==
Michael Savage like Mark Levin is also known for his use of humorous and derogatory ways of describing names and organizations.

{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Name!!Epithet
|-
| Mainstream Media || Government-Media Complex
|-
| Newspapers || Local Rags
|-
| [[New York Times]] || Old York Times
|-
| [[CNN]] || Crescent News Network
|-
| [[New York Times|Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.]] || Pinchy
|-
| [[The Weekly Standard]] || The Meekly Standard
|-
| [[Nancy Pelosi]] || Nancy Lugosi
|-
| [[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]] || The [[Hitler]] of our time
|-
| [[Barack Obama]] || Obummer, The Marxist-in-chief, Barry From Honolulu,The Thin Smoking Man
|-
| [[San Francisco]] || San Fransicko
|-
| [[Al Gore]] || Al Gorlioni of the Gorlioni Crime Syndicate
|-
| [[Prince Charles]] || Prince "Schmuck" Charles
|-
| [[Mark Levin]] || The guy who sounds like Groucho Marx's grandmother on laughing gas
|-
| [[Sean Hannity]] || The Wallbanger
|-
| [[Bill O'Reilly]] || Leprechaun
|-
| [[Rush Limbaugh]] || The Golfer
|-
| [[Glenn Beck]] || The hemorrhoid with eyes
|-
| Neil Cavuto || The sock puppet
|-
| Shepard Smith || Schlep Smith
|-
| Nancy Grace || Nancy Graceless
|-
| [[Whoopi Goldberg]] || Whoopi cushion
|-
| [[Anderson Cooper]] || Anderson Blooper
|-
| [[Lou Dobbs]] || Duffy the Bartender
|-
| [[Ann Coulter]] || Schoolyard hag
|-
| [[CNN|Rick Sanchez]] || King of the worms
|-
| [[Keith Olbermann]] || The guy who urinates on himself
|-
| [[Michael Moore]] || Fatso, Fat Slob
|-
| [[Pat Buchanan]] || Pat "Buchenwald" Buchanan
|-
| [[Chris Matthews]] || Democrat Hack
|-
| Jake Tapper || Jake Tapwater
|-
| [[Rachel Maddow]] || Rachel Madcow
|-
| [[John McCain]] || John McShame, The Pill
|-
| Meghan McCain || The Whiny Chick, Pill Jr.
|-
| [[Marco Rubio]] || The Ice-Cream Man
|-
| [[Jerry Brown]] || Moonbeam
|-
| [[Timothy Geithner]] || The Tax Cheat
|-
| [[Richard Durbin]] || Turban Durbin
|-
| [[Anita Dunn]] || Anita Dung
|-
| [[Janet Napolitano]] || Big Sis'
|-
| [[Newt Gingrich]] || The Go-PAC tick
|-
| [[Mike Huckabee]] || Mike Hucksterbee
|-
| [[John Boehner]] || "Cry Baby" Boehner, Pink Tie
|-
| [[Al Sharpton]] || Freddy's Fashion Mart
|-
| Kenneth Lewis || The Mad Hatter
|-
| Jamie Dimon || Jamie Demon, Jamie Diamond
|-
| [[Democrats]] || Demoncans
|-
| [[Republicans]] || Republicrats
|-
| Islamic terrorists || Throwbacks, Islamo-Fascists
|-
| Liberal Jews || Bagel and Lox Jews
|-
| [[Democratic Party]] || Democrat-Socialist Party of America
|-
| Liberal Republicans || Rockefeller Republicans
|-
| DMV || Department of Mexican Voting
|-
| Pseudo-Conservatives || Check-pants Conservatives, Country club Conservatives
|-class="sortbottom"
|-
|}

==Bibliography==
===Literature as Michael A. Weiner===
* ''Earth Medicine—Earth Foods: Plant Remedies, Drugs, and Natural Foods of the North American Indians'', New York: [[Macmillan Publishers]] USA, 1972, ISBN 0-02-625610-X
* ''Plant a Tree: A Working Guide to Regreening America'', New York: Collier Books, 1975, ISBN 0-471-57104-0
* ''Bugs in the Peanut Butter: Dangers in Everyday Food'', Boston: [[Little, Brown and Company]], 1976, ISBN 0-316-92860-7
* ''Man's Useful Plants'', New York: [[Macmillan Publishers]] USA, 1976, ISBN 0-02-792600-1
* ''The Taster's Guide to Beer: Brews and Breweries of the World'', New York: [[Macmillan Publishers]] USA, 1977, ISBN 0-02-625600-2
* ''The Way of the Skeptical Nutritionist: A Strategy for Designing Your Own Nutritional Profile'', New York: [[Macmillan Publishers]] USA, 1981, ISBN 0-02-625620-7
* ''The Art of Feeding Children Well'' with Kathleen Goss, [[Hachette Book Group|Warner Books]], 1982, ISBN 0-446-97890-6
* ''Nutrition Against Aging'', New York: [[Bantam Books]], 1983, ISBN 0-553-23642-3
* ''Secrets of Fijian Medicine'', San Rafael, Calif.: Quantum Books, 1983, ISBN 0-912845-02-3
* ''Vital Signs'', San Diego: Avant Books, 1983, ISBN 0-932238-20-3
* ''Dr. Savage's High Fiber Counter'', New York: [[Kensington Books|Pinnacle Books]], 1984, ISBN 0-523-42211-3
* ''Getting Off Cocaine'', New York: [[Avon (publisher)|Avon Publications]], 1984, ISBN 0-380-67900-0
* ''The People's Herbal: A Family Guide to Herbal Home Remedies'', Los Angeles: [[G. P. Putnam's Sons|Putnam Publishing Group]], 1984, ISBN 0-399-50756-6
* ''Maximum Immunity: How to Fortify Your Natural Defenses Against Cancer, AIDS, Arthritis, Allergies—Even the Common Cold—And Free Yourself from Unnecessary Worry for Life'', Boston: [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]], 1986, ISBN 0-395-37910-5
* ''Reducing the Risk of Alzheimer's'', New York: [[Stein and Day|Stein and Day Publishers]], 1987, republished under the name Michael Savage, Ph.D., 2007, ISBN 0-946551-53-7
* ''The Complete Book of Homeopathy: The Holistic & Natural Way to Good Health'', Garden City Park, N.Y.: [[Avery Publishing]], 1989, ISBN 0-89529-412-5
* ''Weiner's Herbal: The Guide to Herb Medicine'' with Janet A. Weiner, Dr. Norman R. Farnsworth, San Rafael, Calif.: Quantum Books, 1990, ISBN 0-912845-03-1
* ''The Herbal Bible: A Family Guide to Herbal Home Remedies'', San Rafael, Calif.: Quantum Books, 1992, ISBN 0-912845-06-6
* ''Healing Children Naturally'', San Rafael, Calif.: Quantum Books, 1993, republished under the name Michael Savage, Ph.D., 2007, ISBN 0-912845-10-4
* ''Herbs That Heal: Prescription for Herbal Healing'', Mill Valley, Calif.: Quantum Books, 1994, ISBN 0-912845-11-2
* ''The Antioxidant Cookbook: A Nutritionist's Secret Strategy for Delicious and Healthy Eating'', Mill Valley, Calif.: Quantum Books, 1995, ISBN 0-912845-13-9

===Literature as Michael Savage===
* ''The Death of the White Male: The Case Against Affirmative Action'', Mill Valley, Calif.: Quantum Books, 1991, ISBN 0-912845-08-2
* ''The Compassionate Conservative Speaks'', San Rafael, Calif.: Quantum Books, 1995, ISBN 0-912845-13-9
* ''[[The Savage Nation (book)|The Savage Nation: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Borders, Language, and Culture]]'', Nashville, Tenn: [[WorldNetDaily#WND Books|WND Books]], 2002, ISBN 0-7852-6353-5
* ''[[The Enemy Within (Michael Savage book)|The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Churches, Schools, and Military]]'', Nashville, Tenn: [[Richard Nelson Current|Nelson Current]], 2003, ISBN 0-7852-6102-8
* ''[[Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder|Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions]]'', Nashville, Tenn: Nelson Current, 2005, ISBN 1-59555-006-2
* ''[[The Political Zoo]]'', Nashville, Tenn: Nelson Current, 2006, ISBN 1-59555-042-9
* ''Psychological Nudity: Savage Radio Stories'', San Francisco: Savage Productions, 2008, ISBN 1-4276-3401-7
* ''Banned in Britain: Beating the Liberal Blacklist'', New York: [[Plume (publisher)|Plume]], 2009, ISBN 978-1-4276-4253-0
* ''Trickle Up Poverty: Stopping Obama's Attack on Our Borders, Economy, and Security'', New York: [[William Morrow and Company]], 2010, ISBN 978-0-06-201097-1
* ''Abuse of Power'', New York: [[St. Martin's Press]], 2011, ISBN 978-0-312-65161-9
* ''Trickle Down Tyranny'', New York: [[William Morrow and Company]], April 3, 2012, ISBN 978-0-06-208397-5
* ''Train Tracks: Family Stories of the Holidays'', New York: [[HarperCollins]], 2012, ISBN 978-0-06-221084-5
* ''A Time for War'', New York: [[St. Martin's Press]], 2013, ISBN 978-0-31-265162-6
* ''Stop the Coming Civil War: My Savage Truth'', [[Hachette Book Group USA#Current imprints|Center Street]], 2014, ISBN 1-4555-8243-3
* ''Countdown to Mecca'', St. Martin's Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-250-03526-4 (hardcover)
* ''Government Zero: No Borders, No Language, No Culture'', Center Street, 2015, ISBN 978-1455536115

== References ==
<references />

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savage, Michael}}

[[Category:American Jews]]
[[Category:Broadcasters]]
[[Category:Conservative Commentators]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:The 100 Americans The Left Hates Most]]
[[Category:Best Selling Authors]]

Episcopal Church in the United States of America

2017-12-15T02:59:33Z

ChinesePaleocon: /* Same-sex marriage */ spelling

The '''Episcopal Church in the USA''' (ECUSA), now also known as '''The Episcopal Church''' (TEC), is a [[liberal]] [[Mainline Protestant churches|mainline Protestant]] church. It is the (official) American branch of the worldwide [[Anglican Communion]]. From its founding until the middle of the twentieth century, the church was named the "Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America."

In 2005 the Church reported 7200 churches in the U.S., with 1.8 million full members and 15,900 clergy. It has been steadily shrinking in membership since its peak of 3.6 million in 1966 and, by 2011, had lost over 40 percent of the churchgoers it counted in the mid-1960s. It is undergoing a theological split as traditionalists [[Anglican Church in North America|break off]] over a number of concerns, most notably the issue of homosexual bishops. It sponsors [[Sewanee]] University in Tennessee and a number of other colleges and seminaries across the United States.

Episcopalians reject some of the doctrines held by Protestants such as [[Martin Luther]] and share some traditions with the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. In the current Episcopal Church, mainly liturgical practices are shared.

==Worship==
Worship in the Episcopal Church is according to the 1979 [[Book of Common Prayer]], a book of worship services for use in the church. The previous edition was published in 1928. Worship styles within the Episcopal Church can range from "high church" (emphasizing ritual, sung liturgy, candles and incense, genuflecting, etc. with services resembling a [[Roman Catholic]] service before 1960) to "low church" (emphasizing preaching and personal conversion and eschewing elaborate ceremony, with services resembling other evangelical Protestant denominations). Many Episcopal churches have a "broad church" stance, meaning they take a middle ground and incorporate elements of both high and low church styles. The Episcopal Church has been active in ecumenical movements, and in 1948 it became a founding member of the [[World Council of Churches]].

==Theology==
Episcopal theology is summarized by the [[Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion]], principally written by [[Thomas Cranmer]]. The Articles were adopted by the Church of England in 1563 and by the new Protestant Episcopal Church in 1801. The influence of the Articles has decreased dramatically over the last few centuries, as the Anglican Communion has gradually moved further away from [[Protestantism]] and closer to [[Catholicism]].

==Politics==
The [[National Cathedral]] in Washington is an Episcopal church and is the official seat of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA. Twelve of the forty-three Presidents have been Episcopalians, including [[George Washington]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[George H. W. Bush]], and [[Gerald Ford]].

==Schisms==
Changes made in the church during the 1970s, specifically the ordination of women and the adoption of a new Book of Common Prayer in 1979, led to a movement of breakaway churches called the [[Continuing Anglican]] movement.

There is currently an additional area of controversy in the Episcopal Church concerning the role of homosexuals within the church. The dispute involves both the establishment of rites for the blessing of same-sex marriages in the church and the consecrating of non-celibate homosexual persons as Episcopal bishops. The church was given until September 30, 2007 to determine whether or not it would continue to consecrate homosexuals but replied that it would not yield its autonomy. In 2010, a lesbian priest became the second openly homosexual priest in the church to be approved for consecration as a bishop. The Episcopal Church's liberal stance has alienated it from some other churches of the Anglican Communion, specifically national churches in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America which have broken intercommunion with ECUSA while remaining with her as provinces of the Anglican Communion.

Some U.S. Episcopal congregations and dioceses opposed to the consecration of practicing homosexuals to the episcopate have removed themselves from ECUSA and instead placed themselves under the authority of Anglican churches in Africa, Latin America, or Southeast Asia, thus attempting to remain (unlike the churches in the Continuing Anglican movement) in full communion with the worldwide Anglican Communion. Along with the Reformed Episcopal Church and parishes established in North America by various overseas Anglican provinces, these Anglicans in 2010 formed themselves into the new "Anglican Church in North America" and won recognition from a majority of the provinces of the Anglican Communion.

Some of the churches which formerly belonged to ECUSA are currently involved in legal struggles with ECUSA over the fate of their historic church buildings. Most often, the courts have held in favor of ECUSA and against the various churches that have declared their independence from her.

==Same-sex marriage==
In July 2015, the Episcopal Church overwhelmingly approved to allow [[same sex marriages]] to be performed in its churches.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/01/episcopalians-gay-marriage/29595601/]</ref>

==Prominent Episcopalians==
*[[Madeleine Albright]]
*[[George H. W. Bush]]
*[[Tucker Carlson]]
*[[Cab Calloway]]
*[[Jefferson Davis]]
*[[Phillip K. Dick]]
*[[Duke Ellington]]
*[[Gerald Ford]]
*[[Jerry Garcia]]
*[[Barry Goldwater]]
*[[Kay Bailey Hutchison]]
*[[Lady Bird Johnson]]
*[[John Jay]]
*[[Robert E. Lee]]
*[[James Madison]]
*[[Thurgood Marshall]]
*[[Eleanor Holmes Norton]]
*[[Sandra Day O'Connor]]
*[[Karl Rove]]
*[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]
*[[Colin Powell]]
*[[George Washington]]
*[[Reese Witherspoon]]
*[[Jesse Watters]]

==References==
<references/>

==Further reading==
* Hein, David, and Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr. ''The Episcopalians.'' (2004) 336pp [http://www.questia.com/read/111700494?title=The%20Episcopalians online edition], the best place to begin
* Holmes, David. ''A Brief History of the Episcopal Church.'' (1993). 239 pp.

==Bibliography==
* Butler, Diana Hochstedt. ''Standing against the Whirlwind: Evangelical Episcopalians in Nineteenth-Century America.'' (1995). 270 pp.
* Hein, David. ''Noble Powell and the Episcopal Establishment in he Twentieth Century.'' (2001). 182 pp.
* Luker, Ralph. ''A Southern Tradition in Theology and Social Criticism, 1830-1930: The Religious Liberalism and Social Conservatism of James Warley Miles, William Porcher Dubose, and Edgar Gardner Murphy.'' (1984). 463 pp.
* Mullin, Robert Bruce. ''Episcopal Vision/American Reality: High Church Theology and Social Thought in Evangelical America.'' (1986). 247 pp.
* Prelinger, Catherine M., ed. ''Episcopal Women: Gender, Spirituality, and Commitment in an American Mainline Denomination.'' (1992). 363 pp.
* Prichard, Robert W. ''The Nature of Salvation: Theological Consensus in the Episcopal Church, 1801-73'' (1997). 217 pp.
* Rankin, Richard. ''Ambivalent Churchmen and Evangelical Churchwomen: The Religion of the Episcopal Elite in North Carolina, 1800-1860.'' (1993). 203 pp.
* Shattuck, Gardiner H., Jr. ''Episcopalians and Race: Civil War to Civil Rights.'' (2000). 298 pp.

[[Category:Christian Denominations]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Episcopalians]]
[[Category:Anglicanism]]
[[Category:Liberal Organizations]]

Examples of Bias in Wikipedia

2017-12-15T02:57:46Z

ChinesePaleocon: Spelling

This list covers a wide range of bias in the English Wikipedia website. Although Wikipedia claims to have credibility because anyone can edit it, in fact the website represents the viewpoint of its most strident and persistent editors. On [[Christmas]] Day 2016 (NYC time), Wikipedia's entry for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Maryanne Trump Barry prominently and falsely declared: "Her younger brother is loan shark and liar Donald Trump."<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maryanne_Trump_Barry&type=revision&diff=756673396&oldid=756136858</ref>

Wikipedia is also heavily influenced by paid public relations professionals who do not disclose their conflicts of interest. This list together with the sublists linked below provide a wide variety of examples of the resulting bias.

[[Image:Jimmy_wales_1.jpg‎|right|250px|thumb|Co-Founder of Wikipedia, the [[atheist]] [[Jimmy Wales]]]]
On August 23, 2011, David Swindle published an article at ''[[FrontPage Magazine]]'' detailing how [[Wikipedia]] has been taken over by the [[Leftist|political left]]; he cited statistics relating to Wikipedia's articles on [[Ann Coulter]], [[Michael Moore]], [[Glenn Beck]] and [[Keith Olbermann]], which helped demonstrate that Wikipedia has a leftist bias, and he discussed the [[liberal]]/leftist cultural foundations of Wikipedia.<ref name="frontpagemag.com">[http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/23/how-the-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1/ How the left conquered Wikipedia - Part 1]</ref>

For example, Swindle wrote:

<blockquote>"Consider Ann Coulter versus Michael Moore. Coulter’s entry (on August 9, 2011) was 9028 words long.* Of this longer-than-usual entry, 3220 words were devoted to “Controversies and criticism” in which a series of incidents involving Coulter and quotes from her are cited with accompanying condemnations, primarily from her opponents on the Left. That’s 35.6 percent of Coulter’s entry devoted to making her look bad. By contrast, Moore’s entry is 2876 words (the more standard length for entries on political commentators), with 130 devoted to “Controversy.” That’s 4.5% of the word count, a fraction of Coulter’s. Does this mean that an “unbiased” commentator would find Coulter eight times as “controversial” as Moore?"<ref name="frontpagemag.com"/></blockquote>

The project was initiated by [[Atheism|atheist]] and [[entrepreneur]] [[Jimmy Wales]] and the [[agnosticism|agnostic]] [[philosophy]] [[professor]] [[Larry Sanger]] on January 15, 2001.<ref>http://www.nndb.com/lists/288/000092012/</ref> An irony of internet history is that Jimmy Wales, despite being an atheist, refers to himself as Wikipedia's "spiritual leader".<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/09/wikimedia_pron_purge/</ref> Despite its official "neutrality policy," Wikipedia has a strong liberal bias. In his article entitled ''Wikipedia lies, slander continue'' [[journalism|journalist]] [[Joseph Farah]] stated Wikipedia "is not only a provider of inaccuracy and bias. It is wholesale purveyor of lies and slander unlike any other the world has ever known."<ref name="wnd.com">http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83640</ref> Mr. Farah has repeatedly been the victim of defamation at the Wikipedia website.<ref name="wnd.com"/> In December 2010, [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] [[JP Holding]] called Wikipedia "the abomination that causes misinformation".<ref name="tektonticker.blogspot.com">http://tektonticker.blogspot.com/search/label/Wikipedia</ref> Although Wales "made his original fortune as a pornography trafficker," he has since tried to clean up his image and demands retractions when people report this fact.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/heres-your-correction-wikipedia-founder/|title=Here's Your Correction, Wikipedia Founder|date=December 17, 2012|accessdate=December 26, 2012|work=WND}}</ref>

Co-founder Larry Sanger, who left the site, later acknowledged that Wikipedia does not follow its own neutrality policy.<ref>[https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/larry-sanger-co-founder-of-wikipedia-agrees-that-it-does-not-follow-its-own-neutrality-policy/ Uncommon Descent, December 1, 2016, Posted by Barry Arrington]</ref>
{|
|bgcolor=yellow|    Most examples have been moved to the sublists. Please visit the sublists to learn about the variety of bias in Wikipedia.
|}

== List of examples of liberal bias in Wikipedia ==

Below is a growing list of around 300 examples of [[liberal bias]], [[deceit]], edits stemming from corrupting conflicts of interest, frivolous [[gossip]], and blatant errors on [[Wikipedia]]. The [[atheism|atheist]] [[Jimmy Wales]] was a lead founder of Wikipedia. [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] [[JP Holding]] called Wikipedia "the abomination that causes misinformation".<ref name="tektonticker.blogspot.com"/> Because the list of examples is so long, it is divided into sublists based on subject matter. Some of the most egregious examples are in these sublists, which are well worth reading. At risk of duplication, some of the most interesting examples from the sublists are also repeated on this main list to give an overview. (We limit this main list to up to three examples from each sublist.)

==Examples of Bias ==
=== Abortion ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Abortion]]
[[Image:B Bhutto.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Benazir Bhutto]]
#Wikipedia's articles on [[genocide]],<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Genocide&oldid=744025805</ref> [[murder]],<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder&oldid=744013669</ref> and [[homicide]]<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Homicide&oldid=744087425</ref> have absolutely no mention of abortion,<ref>With the exception of a single mention in the article "Murder" which states that the availibility of abortion may affect murder rates of born humans.</ref> even though it has killed more people than any other genocide.<ref>Ertelt, Steve (November 6, 2012). [http://www.lifenews.com/2012/11/06/abortion-has-destroyed-117-million-people-in-the-united-states/ Abortion Has Destroyed 117 Million People in the United States]. ''LifeNews.com''. Retrieved October 12, 2016.</ref>
#Wikipedia has a large article detailing anti-abortion violence committed around the world,<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence</ref> but there is no article about pro-abortion violence. There is no article for "Pro-choice violence"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-choice_violence</ref> and "Pro-abortion violence" bizarrely redirects to the "Abortion debate" article.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-abortion_violence</ref> Before being redirected, the "Pro-abortion violence" article was biased towards downplaying the reality of violence committed by supporters of abortion.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pro-abortion_violence&oldid=298226073</ref> For example, while the "Anti-abortion violence" article matter-of-factly begins: "Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that provide abortion." ...the "Pro-abortion violence" article dismissingly began: "Pro-abortion violence (or pro-choice violence) is a term used in the pro-life movement to characterize acts of violence committed by abortion practitioners or abortion advocates against those who oppose abortion or against pregnant women. The former is regarded as factual while the latter is just "a term used in the pro-life movement."
# [[Wikipedia]] claimed that [[conservatives]] opposed to [[abortion]] are described as "anti-baby" or "anti-family". [[Wikipedia]] removed this bias only after it was identified here.<ref>That statement remained on the article from [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Conservatism&diff=173316636&oldid=173314241 November 23] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Conservatism&diff=next&oldid=179870132 December 26, 2007]</ref>

===Religion===
[[File:Omar_Mateen.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Omar Mateen]]
====Anti-Christianity====
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Anti-Christianity]]
#A Wikipedia editor Qworty devoted 13,000 edits to cleaning up articles on pro-pagan topics before being permanently banned<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/IncidentArchive797#User:Qworty|title=Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive797|accessdate=July 9, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://illusionofmore.com/montags-grin-wikipedia/|title=Montag’s Grin: A Look at Wikipedia|first=David|last=Newhoff|date=June 5, 2013|accessdate=Sept. 20, 2013}}</ref> and then outed as Robert Clark Young by the website salon.com.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/2013/05/17/revenge_ego_and_the_corruption_of_wikipedia/|title=Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia|date=May 17, 2013|work=salon.com|accessdate=July 9, 2013}}</ref> The failure to crack down on his work earlier drew criticism from the pagan website wildhunt.org.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wildhunt.org/2013/05/anti-pagan-wikipedia-editor-outed-by-salon-com.html|title=Anti-Pagan Wikipedia Editor Outed by Salon.com|date=May 22, 2013|accessdate=July 9, 2013}}</ref>
# Wikipedia's article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=You_Can_Run_But_You_Cannot_Hide_International&oldid=524629239 You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International], the youth rock ministry of Bradlee Dean, is an attack page which was criticized in a WND column.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/whos-afraid-of-bradlee-dean/|title=Who's afraid of Bradlee Dean|date=December 14, 2012|work=WND|accessdate=December 26, 2012}}</ref> In response, [[Jimmy Wales]], Wikipedia's founder, demanded a retraction regarding his past as "a pornography trafficker". Instead, WND published detailed documentation of Wales' Boomis pornography website.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
# [[Wikipedia]] has a lengthy entry on "Jesus H. Christ,"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_H._Christ</ref> a term that is an idiotic mockery of the [[Christian]] [[faith]]. [[Wikipedia]] calls the term "often humorous," "joking" and "comedic", and relishes in repeating disrespectful uses of the term, without admitting that the phrase is an anti-[[Christian]] mockery. Meanwhile, [[Wikipedia]] does not describe mockery of any other religion as "humorous".
# Arguments for atheism are prominently featured in Wikipedia's atheism article, but Wikipedia's Christianity article does not mention Christian apologetics.

====Islam====
{{See also|Rape jihad}}
* An editor included the June 2016 Orlando shootings on the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Islamist_terrorist_attacks List of Islamic terrorist attacks] and an edit war ensued.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/06/30/wikipedia-removes-orlando-shooting-islamist-terror-attack-list/|title=Wikipedia Removes Orlando Shooting From ‘Islamist Terror Attack’ List|work=breitbart.com|date=June 30, 2016|accessdate=July 8, 2016}}</ref>

=== Bestiality/zoophilia ===
[[Image:Sheep.jpg|right|thumb|200px|sheep]]
See [[Wikipedia on bestiality]]

As of July 18, 2012, [[Wikipedia]]'s article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoophilia zoophilia/bestiality] has an entire section on "arguments for zoophilia" plus pictures depicting zoophilia as well as a section on "arguments against zoophilia". No worthwhile encyclopedia in existence has an article on zoophilia/bestiality with an entire section on "arguments for zoophilia" plus pictures depicting zoophilia. As of September 24, 2011, Wikipedia has a "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoophilia_and_the_law Zoophilia and the law"] article which has a section on the impact of zoophilia laws where eight alleged negative impacts of zoophilia laws are given, but no positive impacts of the laws are given.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoophilia_and_the_law#Impact_of_laws|title=Impact of laws section of "Zoopilia and the law"|date=July 17, 2012|accessdate=July 18, 2012}}</ref>

=== Conservapedia smears ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Conservapedia smears]]

# [[Wikipedia]] displays pervasive bias in making [[liberal]] statements with citations that do not support the statements, as illustrated by its entry about [[Conservapedia]].<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia</ref> [[Wikipedia]] states that "Conservapedia has asserted that Wikipedia is 'six times more [[liberal]] than the American public', a statistic which has been criticized for its poor extrapolation and lack of credibility." But the two citations for this claim of "poor extrapolation and lack of credibility" are to articles that say nothing about extrapolation or credibility and instead tend to confirm the [[liberal bias]] on [[Wikipedia]].
# For nearly two months, from at least as early as July 15 through September 9, 2007, [[Wikipedia]] classified its critics, including [[Conservapedia]], as "Fanatics and Special Interests."<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Criticism_of_Wikipedia&oldid=144741567# Fanatics_and_special_interests</ref>
# In 2011 Wikipedia User Σ organized systematic vandalism of Conservapedia using the English Wikipedia IRC. This only came to light when he was nominated to be a Wikipedia Administrator and users there debated whether his actions were a good or bad thing to do.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/%CE%A3&oldid=516746349</ref>

=== Conservative personalities and politicians ===
[[File:Hannahgiles.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Hannah Giles]]
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Conservative Personalities]]

#On November 2, 2006, days before the mid-term Congressional elections, an anonymous IP address traced to the ''[[New York Times]]'' changed [[U.S. House of Representatives]] [[Majority Leader]] [[Tom DeLay]]'s Wikipedia biographical entry from "a prominent member of the [[Republican Party]]" to "Grand Dragon of the Republican Party."<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tom_DeLay&diff=prev&oldid=85320018 Wikipedia/Tom DeLay, Revision as of 20:19, 2 November 2006, IP 199.181.174.146]</ref><ref>[http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/name2ip.php?orgname=New+York+Times&location= WikiScanner]</ref>[dead link]
# Wikipedia has thousands of obscure pages for individuals that the public never heard of or recognize. Conservative undercover journalist [[Hannah Giles]] is not given her own page mostly likely due to the fact she has taken on the liberal establishment and won. A search of Hannah Giles gives her an obscure paragraph in what Wikipedia titles the ''ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy''.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Giles#Hannah_Giles_and_James_O.27Keefe</ref>
# For [[liberal]] politicians, Wikipedia uses flattering photos. But for [[conservative]] politician [[Sally Kern]], about whom [[Homosexuality|homosexual]] activists have had a sissy fit, from 2009 to 2011, Wikipedia used an absurd, uncharacteristic photo.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Files_for_deletion/2011_February_26#File:Sally_Kern_2009.jpg</ref>

===Criminals and mentally ill editors===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Criminals and mentally ill editors]]
#Adam Lanza, who conducted a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, has been identified as editing Wikipedia particularly regarding guns and other mass murders.<ref>{{cite web|title=Report: Computer user believed to be Adam Lanza discovered|url=http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/report_computer_user_believed_to_be_adam_lanza_discovered/|first=Alex|last=Halperin|date=July 1, 2013|accessdate=August 27, 2013|work=Salon.com}}</ref>
#Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik edited English Wikipedia under the username "Conservatism". He also edited the Norwegian Wikipedia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-05-06/In_the_media#Anders_Behring_Breivik.27s_English_Wikipedia_account_revealed|title=Signpost|date=May 6, 2013|accessdate=August 27, 2013}}</ref>
#The the United States Federal Government claimed, among other things, that Bruce Edwards Ivins, a suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks who apparently committed suicide in July 2008, had edit-warred on Wikipedia under the username Jimmyflathead.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2008-08-09/Ivins%27_edits|title=Signpost|date=August 8, 2008|accessdate=August 27, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/01/us/anthrax-killer-case|title=Strange sorority fixation was link that led to anthrax suspect|work=CNN|date=October 1, 2011|accessdate=August 27, 2013}}</ref>

=== Ethnic and racial bias ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Ethnic and racial]]
# In 2008, two 15-year-old students wanted to harass a third student named "Azid", so they edited a Wikipedia article on Korma (a Eastern food) to add Azid as a synonym for a spice.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=491479704 May 8, 2012</ref> This meaning was then added to hundreds of web postings about mid-eastern cooking. On July 16, 2014, one of the students confessed his stunt on Reddit,<ref>http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/2awfib/its_time_for_the_truth_to_come_out/ July 16, 2014</ref> but so many Azid references copied from Wikipedia had emerged in the meantime that Wikipedia did not delete the vandalism as untrue.<ref>http://wikipediocracy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5028</ref>
# For over a year, the article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_A._Wilson_High_School Glen A. Wilson High School] contained threats against an Asian student and made ethnic slurs against the school's primarily Asian badminton team.<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news| url=http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/29/local/me-wikipedia29 | work=Los Angeles Times | first=Molly | last=Hennessy-Fiske | title=Wikipedia threats went unchecked – Los Angeles Times | date=29 April 2008}}</ref>
#Wikipedia has developed a series of history articles outlining the struggles of Jews, Catholics, Asians and blacks against discrimination and the Kl Klux Klan. These articles are now called "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281896%E2%80%931954%29 African-American Civil Rights Movement]" despite being formerly called "American Civil Rights Movement."<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281896%E2%80%931954%29/Archive_1#Name_of_this_article.3F</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281955%E2%80%931968%29#Why_.22African.22-American_Civil_Rights_Movement</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281955%E2%80%931968%29#Proposed_Move</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281955%E2%80%931968%29/Archive_1#American_Civil_Rights_Movement</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281955%E2%80%931968%29/Archive_1#Name_change</ref>

=== Gender bias ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Gender bias]]

# Wikipedia has a gender gap crusade which seeks to increase the percentage of female editors. (In practice that crusade has the effect of driving away male editors.) There are also many serious examples of gender bias in Wikipedia's content.
# When a '''New York Times''' op-ed criticised feminist Wikipedia editors for moving women from [[:Category:American Novelists]] to a separate category,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/wikipedias-sexism-toward-female-novelists.html?_r=0&ref=sunday|title=Wikipedia’s Sexism Toward Female Novelists|date=April 24, 2013|work=New York Times|accessdate=May 2, 2013}}</ref> the article about the author was attacked and watered down, restored<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Filipacchi&diff=552260688&oldid=552235515</ref> and attacked again.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/wikipedias-sexism.html?_r=1|title=Wikipedia's Sexism|date=April 27, 2013|work=New York Times|accessdate=May 2, 2013}}</ref>

=== Global warming ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Global warming]]

# A recent charge is that U.K. scientist and Green Party activist and Realclimate.org member [[William M. Connolley|William Connolley]] functioned as a Wikipedia editor and website administrator, repressing information that militated against Climate Change. As such he "rewrote Wikipedia’s articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling. On Feb. 14, he began to erase the Little Ice Age; on Aug.11, the Medieval Warm Period."<ref>[http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/12/19/lawrence-solomon-wikipedia-s-climate-doctor.aspx ''Lawrence Solomon: Wikipedia’s climate doctor'',] December 19, 2009</ref>
#[[Michael Mann]] is a well known global warming alarmist who is ridiculed for his so-called scientific work on tree ring temperature data, the Hockey Stick theory and was the subject of fraud in the [[Climategate]] scandal. Wikipedia decides not to allow any mention of his involvement with Climategate. Any mention of Climategate is immediately removed from Mann's page.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_E._Mann&diff=prev&oldid=332744981|title=Michael E. Mann}}</ref>

=== Homosexuality ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Homosexuality]]

#Wikipedia editors regularly and fiercely alter the use of the terms "he" or "she" in articles regarding [[cross-dressing]]/[[transsexual]] figures. Male to Female transexuals are near-universally referred to as "she" while women attempting to pass as men are referred to as "he", despite this usage absolutely incorrect in both scientific and legal senses.
#When NBA Basketball player [[Jason Collins]] announced that he was a homosexual, his Wikipedia biography was altered to say that he was a "faggot." When an editor attempted to change the word to "gay" Wikipedia's anti-vandalism robot changed it back.<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/jason-collins-faggot-washington-wizards-wikipedia_n_3223693.html?utm_hp_ref=sports&ir=Sports</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jason_Collins&diff=prev&oldid=553353534</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jason_Collins&diff=next&oldid=554154699</ref> An editor replaced his photo with a poster for "Gay N-word".<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jason_Collins&diff=prev&oldid=554154681</ref> After the page drew criticism on the Huffington Post, Wikipedia locked the page to editing and the changes have been hidden from public view. The article on the 2012-13 Washington Wizzards season had similar problems.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2012–13_Washington_Wizards_season&diff=553709164&oldid=552936180</ref>
#After an edit war,<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chelsea_Manning&diff=569753966&oldid=569753791</ref> Wikipedia changed the Bradley Manning article to Chelsea Manning and gave the article subject female attributes, even though Manning had yet to legal change his name or begin any sex reassignment treatments or therapies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Chelsea_Manning#Page_moved_to_Chelsea_Manning_without_sufficient_consensus|title=Chelsea Manning talk page|accessdate=Aug 24, 2013}}</ref> The article was moved between "Chelsea Manning" and "Bradley Manning" six times in one day as Wikipedia administrators fought among themselves.
#Wikipedia's article on "Homophobia," dignifies the use of what is actually a pejorative slur word to demonize those who oppose the posterior orifice intercourse of men-lying-with-men. The use of this word is an attempt to classify those who oppose such sodomy as having a mental disorder, a phobia. An attempt to demonstrate that opposition to sodomy is neither a fear nor an irrational fear (phobia) supported by the absence of such a phobia in the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,'' will not be tolerated in the article. The existence of this article is a violation of the Wikipedia NPOV standard, as the use of such slur words is an obvious attempt to win a debate by changing the vocabulary (as in changing from fornication to sexually active).<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophobia</ref>

=== Internet policies ===
#The [[Wikimedia Foundation]] (WMF) claims to have a policy against internet censorship. Yet, the WMF has entered into a partnership with the [[Saudi Telecom Company]] (STC) to provide Wikipedia to mobile phone subscribers, prompting questions about the potential conflict over censorship.<ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-October/122320.html</ref> Meanwhile, the English Wikipedia has an article entitled "List of Wikipedia articles censored in Saudi Arabia".<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:List_of_Wikipedia_articles_censored_in_Saudi_Arabia&oldid=505551894</ref>
#Wikipedia engages in censorship of points of view that they disapprove of. In February 2017, Wikipedia (supported by Wikimedia) decided it would no longer accept ''[[The Daily Mail]]'', a right-wing newspaper based in the [[United Kingdom]], as a reliable source.<ref>Panis, Thomas (February 17, 2017). [http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/02/the_wikipedia_purge.html The Wikipedia Purge]. ''American Thinker''. Retrieved February 25, 2017.</ref> Wikipedia also discriminates against other conservative or right-wing sources, such as [[Breitbart.com|Breitbart News]], despite allowing [[liberal media]] sources that promote [[fake news]] as sources. Additionally, using sources even like the Washington Times or the Daily Caller is discouraged at the least.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_61#Washington_Times_column_RS.3F</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_209#Is_the_Washington_Times_an_acceptable_source_for_statements_of_face_related_to_student_protesters.2Fblack_lives_matter.2FMilo_Yiannopoulos.3F</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_179#LA_Times_legitimately_journalistic_WashTimes_is_like_FOx_News</ref> Even citing Fox News is discouraged. Due to its anti-conservative sourcing policies, Wikipedia has an inherent left-wing bias as the left-wing mainstream media sources (along with blatantly left-wing publications that are not challenged, unlike conservative outlets) [[Fake news|are factually correct and the most reliable]] in the eyes of Wikipedia editors.

===Journalists===
See, [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Journalists]], [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Sun News Network]]
#In early October 2005, a prominent and respected journalist [[John Seigenthaler Sr.]], contacted Wikipedia founder [[Jimmy Wales]] about false and libelous content in his biographical entry. Instead of correcting the false allegations that Seignthaler was involved in the Kennedy assassinations, Wales and other editors turned it into a wikidrama with attacks on Seigenthaler for trying to defend his own good name.<ref>[http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=User:Essjay/Letter User:Essjay/Letter]. Retrieved from WikiTruth, November 3, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://www.journalism.org/node/1673 Seigenthaler's Op-Eds], October 1, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org November 12, 2007.</ref><ref>http://www.journalism.cf.ac.uk/2006/online/index.php?id=parse-195-0-0-251&article=336&author=India+Camm</ref><ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm A false Wikipedia 'biography'], By John Seigenthaler, ''USA Today'', 11/29/2005.</ref><ref>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/05/lol.02.html</ref>
#Israeli journalist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Levy Gideon Levy's Wikipedia Biography] has been frequently vandalized with false facts, including allegations that his father was a Nazi collaborator.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/in-a-web-of-lies-the-newspaper-must-live.premium-1.469273|title=
In a Web of lies, the newspaper must live|first=Gideon|last=Levy|date=October 11, 2012|accesdate=October 11, 2012|work=Haaretz Daily Newspaper}}</ref> So many slanderous statements have been posted that the revisions to the article have been hidden from public view at least 22 times.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=delete&page=Gideon_Levy|title=Gideon Levy Deletion Log|accessdate=October 11, 2012}}</ref>
#BBC presenter Lynn Parsons wrote Wikipedia claiming that her biography was false—including her birth date. Her request to have her article deleted was voted down.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Lynn_Parsons|title=Articles for Deletion|accessdate=November 18, 2012|date=November 10, 2012}}</ref>

=== Liberal Politicians ===
[[File:Carter.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Jimmy Carter]]
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Liberal Politicians]]

#The Wikipedia article on the liberal former President of [[Brazil]], [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luiz_In%C3%A1cio_Lula_da_Silva&oldid=526671990|title=Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva|accessdate=December 12, 2012}}</ref> makes a passing reference to the [[mensalão scandal]] as if Lula was not personally involved, but fails to report that convicted conspirators testified that Lula himself knew of and approved of the vote buying.<ref>{{cite news|title=Brazil: Report: Lula knew of vote-buying scheme|work=Washington Post|date=December 12, 2012|page=A8}}</ref> Instead, Wikipedia depicts Lula as a widely admired politician.
# Wikipedia's article on [[Jimmy Carter]]'s Presidency is clearly biased in favor of the failed politician.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Jimmy_Carter#Budget</ref>
# Various attempts have been made on Wikipedia to emphasize the controversial fact that [[Elizabeth Warren]]<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elizabeth_Warren&oldid=755585604</ref> claimed on many occasions to be a Native American and a "person of color" despite a lack of documented evidence. Due to the revival of this controversy by Donald Trump in the 2016 election, attempts were made to create a separate paragraph about the issue. However, a cabal of administrators instead insisted that the controversy remain buried in the bottom of a section about her 2012 campaign where many readers said they were unable to find it.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Elizabeth_Warren&oldid=755040824 This, for example ("Controversies"), where an editor did not know it was already in the article.]</ref>

===Mathematics and Engineering ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Mathematics and Engineering]]

Subjects such as Mathematics and Engineering require a precision of thought that is more than the group-think of Wikipedia editors can muster.
# The Wikipedia article [[Elementary proof]] was proposed for deletion in October 2009 and the debate turned on what Conservapedia had written on the subject. The article was kept and not deleted.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Elementary_proof Retrieved July 17, 2014.</ref>
# A Wikipedia editor going under the pseudonym ''Jagged85'' made 67,000 edits between 2007 and 2010 until it was demonstrated that he was systematically misrepresenting Islamic science, technology, and philosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Jagged_85/Evidence]

=== Obama ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Obama]]

# Wikipedia added a "Controversies" sections to their article for the "Presidency of George W. Bush"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Presidency_of_George_W._Bush&oldid=282227871#Controversies_and_criticism</ref> but not to their article on the "Presidency of Barack Obama"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Barack_Obama</ref> The section on Bush has since been removed.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Presidency_of_George_W._Bush&diff=282810799&oldid=282227871</ref>
# In addition to the previous example, there was a massive Wikipedia article for "Criticism of George W. Bush,"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Criticism_of_George_W._Bush&oldid=278422248</ref> but the article for "Criticism of Barack Obama" had been deleted at least ''FOUR TIMES'' since October 2008 with excuses like "Article that has no meaningful, substantive content" and "Attack page or negative unsourced BLP."<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Barack_Obama</ref> Wikipedia has since redirected "Criticism of George W. Bush" and added "Public image of" articles for both presidents, however President Bush's article is heavily negative<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_image_of_George_W._Bush</ref> while President Obama's is filled with glowing, pandering fluff with very few meaningful criticisms.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_image_of_Barack_Obama</ref> The edit summary of the redirect says, "so the conservatards won't get their knickers in a twist."

===Paid Editing===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Paid Editing]]

In theory, Wikipedia articles are supposed to be written by disinterested volunteers based on reliable secondary sources. However, because Google will rank a Wikipedia article as the first result when a person searches on the article's title, public relations firms and "reputation management" companies work hard to remove any negative or controversial facts from Wikipedia articles relating to their clients. Although such paid editing is not allowed, Wikipedia does little to enforce its rules against paid editing and there are numerous examples of paid editors introducing biased content on behalf of their clients. Wikipedia selectively fails to enforce its ban on paid editing when the payments come from its large donors.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://wikipediocracy.com/2014/03/18/the-thin-bright-line-part-2-wikipedia-donors-feel-entitled-to-more-than-a-mug-or-a-tote-bag/|title=Wikipedia donors feel entitled to more than a mug or a tote bag|date=March 18, 2014|accessdate=April 3, 2014|first=Greg|last=Kohs}}</ref> Many organizations that visit the WMF Headquarters also engage in undisclosed paid editing to promote themselves.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://wikipediocracy.com/2014/07/06/look-whos-visiting-the-wmf/|title=Look Who Is Visiting the WMF|date=July 6, 2014|accessdate=July 17, 2014|first=Greg|last=Kohs}}</ref>

Perhaps one of the extreme examples is the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), an unaccredited business school in India. Even though the IIPM was in regulatory problems, an editor(s) Wifione managed to keep the Wikipedia article on IIPM and its President positive while adding negative items to IIPM's competitors. Adding to the problem is that Wifione is a Wikipedia administrator. The Wikipedia Arbitration Committee allowed this to continue for years before taking action.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wikipediocracy.com/2013/12/02/indian-fakers-teach-wiki-pr/|title=Indian Fakers Teach Wiki PR|date=December 2, 2013|accessdate=February 8, 2015|work=Wikipediocracy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Wifione|title=Wifione Case|accessdate=February 8, 2015}}</ref>

In April 2017, [[Burger King]] devised a television commercial designed to trigger Google's voice-activated Home smart speaker and have the device advertise the Whopper by reading the start of the Wikipedia Whopper article.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_O54le4__I</ref> Google quickly reprogrammed the system to respond only if the user asked for the definition of a "Whopper burger." But before the fix was implemented, Wikipedia editors changed the article to include "horse meat", "cyanide",<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whopper&oldid=777717747</ref> "rat droppings", "dinosaurs" and other foul ingredients.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whopper&oldid=777715629</ref> The project is an example of a company trying to use Wikipedia to lend credibility to a commercial product.<blockquote>It appears that Burger King itself tried to fix the Wikipedia problem. The first sentence changed to a suspiciously glowing description of the Whopper, authored by user “Fermachado123" — a name that sounds similar to Fernando Machado, Burger King's senior vice president for global brand management.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whopper&diff=773832878&oldid=773809917</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/companies/burger-king-thought-it-had-a-great-idea-instead-it-ended-up-with-a-whopper-of-a-problem/ar-BBzMU9j?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=mailsignout|title=Burger King thought it had a great idea. Instead, it ended up with a Whopper of a problem. |date=April 13, 2017|accessdate=May 16, 2017|work=Washington Post}}</ref></blockquote>

===Pornography / Sexuality===
# English Wikipedia embeds the full length video of pornography movies "Debbie Does Dallas" and "A Free Ride" in the English encyclopedia articles about those films.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/11/wikipedia_search_engine/|title=Move over, Google. Here’s Wikipedia's search engine – full of on-demand smut|date=February 11, 2016|accessdate=April 10, 2016|work=The Register}}</ref>
# Wikipedia Commons, which collects public domain images, has drawn extensive criticism for sexually explicit material, including nude photos and photos of various acts. The editors of Wikipedia Commons have created a "Hot Sex Barnstar" to reward those people who upload particularly explicit images. When a former member of Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee asked to have it removed, many people opposed his suggestion.<ref>http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Deletion_requests/Template:The_Hot_sex_barnstar&oldid=96124965 Retrieved May 12, 2013</ref>
# The Wikipedia article [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Body_parts_slang&redirect=no Body parts slang] had an elaborate list of definitions. It was subject to two controversial deletion debates, and finally merged into [[Slang]].<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Body_parts_slang (2005)</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Body_parts_slang_2</ref> Many of the definitions were moved to Wikitionary. The deleted article was also copied to Wikibooks.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ABody_parts_slang&diff=27163440&oldid=26851206</ref>
#The Wikipedia article "Brazil v Germany (2014 FIFA World Cup)" included a section society's reaction to the soccer match, which stated that many people had uploaded video excerpts from the match to a pornography website with sexually suggestive titles. A long debate and edit war ensued over whether the explicit words should remain in the article.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ABrazil_v_Germany_%282014_FIFA_World_Cup%29&diff=631482381&oldid=617292981</ref>
# When the WMF Board of Directors voted to implement an image filter so that pornographic images would not be shown to children or people who wished to avoid them, Wikipedia volunteers rebelled and Fox News reported that WMF had abandoned its plans to address the problem.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/09/17/wikipedia-abandons-efforts-to-purge-porn-from-online-encyclopedia/|title=Wikipedia abandons efforts to purge porn from online encyclopedia|work=Fox News|date=Sept. 17, 2013|accessdate=Sept. 20, 2013}}</ref>
#A Wikipedia editor who edited both WP and [[Wikia]] using the same account name was caught as a child predator by a Wikia sting in July 2011. He was allowed to continue editing Wikipedia for another three years before being banned.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.examiner.com/article/wikipedia-finally-bans-middle-aged-pervert|title=Wikipedia finally bans middle-aged pervert|work=Examiner|date=June 30, 2014|accessdate=January 9, 2015|first=Greg|last=Kohs}}</ref>

=== Public Policy in the United States ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Public Policy in the US]]

# Wikipedia's entry for the [[National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act]] (NCVIA) reads like an advertisement for vaccine manufacturers, including unsupported and implausible claims about vaccination.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Childhood_Vaccine_Injury_Act</ref> Unsupported claims featured there include "Vaccine makers indicated they would cease production if their proposal for the NCVIA was not enacted" and "concern that the NCVIA may not provide an adequate legal shield." Wikipedia's entry omits references to leading pro-parent websites concerning vaccination,<ref>http://www.909shot.com/</ref> and instead Wikipedia's entry lists pro-government and pro-vaccine-manufacturer websites. Wikipedia's entry even includes this entire paragraph, which is unsupported and is little more than an advertisement for drug companies:
#: Public health safety, according to backers of the legislation, depends upon the financial viability of pharmaceutical companies, whose ability to produce sufficient supplies in a timely manner could be imperiled by civil litigation on behalf of vaccine injury victims that was mounting rapidly at the time of its passage. Vaccination against infectious illnesses provides protection against contagious diseases and afflictions which may cause permanent disability or even death. Vaccines have reduced morbidity caused by infectious disease; e.g., in the case of smallpox, mass vaccination programs have eradicated a once life-threatening illness.
# The Wikipedia article on the Haymarket Riots and subsequent trial of the labor terrorists claimed, "The prosecution, led by Julius Grinnell, did not offer evidence connecting any of the defendants with the bombing. ... " A college professor who wrote a book about the trial knew that a lot of evidence was presented during the lengthy trial and tried to correct the article. His account in the ''Chronicle of Higher Education'' shows the contempt that Wikipedia holds for scholarly experts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chronicle.com/article/The-Undue-Weight-of-Truth-on/130704/|title=The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia|date=February 12, 2012|accessdate=September 20, 2013}}</ref>

=== Science and Evolution ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Science and Evolution]]

#Wikipedia savages anyone who criticizes the [[theory of evolution]], such as Dr. [[William Dembski]], whom Wikipedia introduces with outlandish, unsupported quotations by [[liberal]] critics.<ref name="Wiki Dembski">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Dembski</ref> For example, Wikipedia describes David H. Wolpert as a "prominent mathematician" in order to insert a scathing, unjustified quotation by him about Dembski.<ref name="Wiki Dembski"/> In fact, Wolpert does not even hold a math degree and his (non-math) doctorate was from the University of California at the weak Santa Barbara location.<ref>http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/m/profile/dhw/cv.current.frame.pdf</ref> Dembski's PhD is in math from the preeminent University of Chicago.
#Wikipedia's article on [[dinosaurs]] contains no mention of the strong evidence that they existed alongside humans and no mention of modern sightings of dinosaur-like creatures reported by the [[best of the public]].<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur</ref> Additionally, for a period of time in 2016, the Wikipedia articles for ''Answers in Genesis'' and ''Creation Museum'' called the substantiated view "erroneous".<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Answers_in_Genesis&diff=731471041&oldid=731470641</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creation_Museum&diff=731816581&oldid=731815973</ref> The wording was only removed from the articles by a bot when an image to which the wording was attached was deleted.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Answers_in_Genesis&diff=736369020&oldid=735923030</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creation_Museum&diff=736368986&oldid=736368969</ref>
#Wikipedia has separate articles on many small wikis, for instance, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_History_Project LGBT History Project] with a WikiFactor of [http://wikiindex.org/LGBT_History_UK 6], but does not have an article on [[CreationWiki]] with a WikiFactor of [http://wikiindex.org/CreationWiki 45]. Articles on CreationWiki are repeatedly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/CreationWiki_%282nd_nomination%29 deleted].

===Sports===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Sports]]

# From 2008 until October 2014, the Wikipedia article on the 1978-79 Boston College Basketball Point Shaving Scandal named Joe Streater as one of the participating players.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1978%E2%80%9379_Boston_College_basketball_point_shaving_scandal&diff=prev&oldid=231463815</ref> However, he was not even on the team that year. He was inserted into the article by an anonymous IP address and the erroneous information was left until the press publicized the error.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/guilt-wikipedia-joe-streater-became-falsely-attached-boston-college-point-shaving-scandal.html/2|title=Guilt By Wikipedia: How Joe Streater became falsely attached to the Boston College point shaving scandal|first=Ben |last=Koo|date=Oct 9, 2014 |accessdate=October 13, 2014}}</ref>
#Wikipedia's biographies of Scottish soccer players are so notoriously biased that the new General Manager of the Hiberian Football Club, Alan Stubbs, told the press, "We can't be scouting players any more on the back of a Wikipedia page and one individual's opinion. I’ll want background checks and medical histories."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/wont-signing-players-based-wikipedia-4063573|title= We won't be signing players based on their Wikipedia descriptions anymore, says Hibs boss Alan Stubbs|date=August 17, 2014|accessdate=August 18, 2014|first= Scott |last=McDermott|work=Daily Record}}</ref>
# On December 14, 2014, the Dallas Cowboy's Dez Bryant successfully played against Eagles' defensive back Bradley Fletcher. In response, Wikipedia changed Fletcher's biography to describe his position as "Dez Bryant's bitch" and added a paragraph, which said, Fletcher "displayed his poor mechanics, speed, and talent."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.totalprosports.com/2014/12/15/bradley-fletcher-wikipedia-page/|title=Bradley Fletcher Wikipedia Page Changed After Loss to Cowboys (Pic)|date=December 15, 2014|accessdate=December 15, 2014|work=totalprosports.com}}</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bradley_Fletcher&diff=638157096&oldid=638156965</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bradley_Fletcher&diff=prev&oldid=638156942</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bradley_Fletcher&diff=prev&oldid=638156868</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bradley_Fletcher&diff=prev&oldid=638156546</ref>
# The [[University of Pittsburgh]]'s athletic director, Steve Pederson, may be unpopular, but Wikipedia changed the infobox about its athletic program to list "Satan" as the athletic director.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cardiachill.com/2014/12/13/7386693/steve-pederson-paul-chryst-wisconsin-pitt-football-pittsburgh-panthers-athletic-director|title=Satan employed by Pitt. Per Wikipedia.|date=December 13, 2014|accessdate=December 15, 2014}}</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pittsburgh_Panthers&diff=prev&oldid=637798626</ref>

=== Conspiracy Theories ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Conspiracy theories]]

#In Wikipedia's page on the ABC's docudrama ''The Path to 9/11'', the page contains a section titles "Controversy and criticisms," which contains 19 sub-sections to support it, while the section titled "Controversy: support for The Path to 9/11" only contains four, despite the fact that the controversy was sparked by pro-Clinton liberals that failed to see the fact that the two-part miniseries criticized both Bush and Clinton administrations leading up to 9/11 and that writer Cyrus Nowrasteh stated that many of their consultants on it stated that the docudrama went easy on Clinton. It also fails to note John Ziegler's documentary on the censoring of the docudrama ''Blocking the Path to 9/11'' [http://www.johnziegler.com/], which contains interviews with many people on the topic, and points out how the [[MSM]] liberals and Clintons have smeared it so much that it has destroyed it from ever being shown on TV or being sold on DVD in the near-future. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Path_to_9/11]
#The Wikipedia article "[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_conspiracy_theories&oldid=504359758 List of consipracy theories]" ridicules and dismisses as "conspiracy theories" more hypotheses advanced by conservative thinkers than hypotheses advanced by left wing thinkers. The editor(s) of this page have an obvious liberal bias that hold in disfavor a number of ideas advanced by conservatives. For example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_conspiracy_theories&oldid=504359758#Water_fluoridation Water Fluoridation] has been opposed by many conservative groups due to concerns about health impacts as well as a question of personal freedom and limits on the proper scope of government. Yet, the Wikipedia list dismisses these views as a "conspiracy theory" that draws on "distrust of experts and unease about medicine and science". In another example, [[peak oil]] is a theory advanced by many conservatives including geologist [[T. Boone Pickens]]. Yet, the page dismisses it, noting "There are theories that the 'peak oil' concept is a fraud concocted by the oil industries to increase prices amid concerns about future supplies."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_conspiracy_theories&oldid=504359758|title=List of conspiracy theories#Peak oil|date=July 28, 2012|accessdate=July 28, 2012}}</ref>
#The Wikipedia article "[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Plan_%28Washington,_D.C.%29&oldid=478678893 The Plan (Washington, D.C.)]" is one of the conspiracy theories included on the official Wikipedia conspiracy list. However, the article cites few sources supporting the existence of the conspiracy to replace black residents with whites in Washington DC and no sources that refute the existence of the conspiracy.
#As of August 15, 2016, the article in En.[[wikipedia]] ("[[Murder of Seth Rich]]") had a ''motion to delete'' template on it, delete on grounds of not being notable, although at one point it was getting 1500 daily views. It was so allegedly unnotable that a strong debate was generated there on the talk page and on the Delete Articles section, where editors essentially "voted" to Keep vs. Delete, allegedly on the grounds of non-notability.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Murder_of_Seth_Rich</ref> Among the arguments for deleting the article there was a repetitious reference to the talking point "conspiracy theory," though the article said nothing at all about a conspiracy theory. Also, as of August 17, 2016, the Wiki editor who started this article, was officially blocked by an administrator. His talk page said: "You have been blocked indefinitely from editing because it appears that you are not here to build an encyclopedia."<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:TradingJihadist</ref> As of August 21, 2016, the motion to delete was denied on grounds of no consensus, although a derogatory false comment was attached attacking some of those who argued in favor of "Keep." Soon after, the article was summarily locked down until August 27, 2016, and a request for mediation was filed.
::Despite the fact that the article was not deleted, several details about the murder were deleted from the article by the same editors who advocated for deletion,<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Murder_of_Seth_Rich#List_of_excluded_items</ref> leaving the article a rather short stub article. And as of August 24, 2016, there was a continuing debate and vote on the talk page of that article as to
::"Should this article mention the fact that WikiLeaks offered $20,000 in reward money for providing information regarding the perpetrator of this crime?" along with this template warning: "{{Ds/talk notice|blp}}," which warned: "This article is subject to discretionary sanctions."
::On September 18, 2016, less than a month after the previous motion to delete failed, a second motion to delete was started by the same editors who tried to delete it the first time, but once again, on October 4, the motion to delete was denied, as there was "no consensus."<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Murder_of_Seth_Rich_(2nd_nomination) Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Murder of Seth Rich (2nd nomination)]</ref>

=== Naziism, Socialism, Communism ===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Naziism, Socialism, Communism]]

#Edits from Russian Government IP addresses removed statements in the Wikipedia article on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 which said that Russia had provided the terrorists with the surface to air missile used to shoot down that civilian flight.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10977082/Russian-government-edits-Wikipedia-on-flight-MH17.html|title=Russian government edits Wikipedia on flight MH17|first=Matthew |last=Sparkes|date=18 Jul 2014|work=Telegraph|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/07/18/a_wikipedia_edit_twitterbot_caught_the_russian_state_tv_editing_the_mh17.html|title=Wikipedia Edit Twitterbots Are Revealing How Russia Wants to Frame the MH17 Crash|first=Lily |last=Hay Newman|work=Slate|date=July 18, 2014|accessdate=July 25, 2014}}</ref>
#Wikipedia's main article on Communism does not mention any act of genocide in Communist countries, and any attempts to edit the page to include this information are deleted. The Nazism page, however, includes multiple mentions of the Holocaust. The only mention of communist genocide is buried deep within the article structure for Communism.
# [[Kazakhstan]] a dictatorship that used to be in the [[Soviet Union]] paid $13 million to [[Tony Blair]]'s PR firm to polish its image. [[Jimmy Wales]]'s new wife works for that firm, and the WMF accepted a government-front organization which is funded by the Kazakh government to be its local chapter. In 2011, Wales declared the founder of the chapter to be the "Global Wikipedian of the year" and promised to pay $5,000 of expenses toward his attending the 2012 Wikimania in Washington DC. Wales denies the government involvement and failed to make the promised payment.<ref>http://wikipediocracy.com/2012/12/23/jimmy-wales-in-the-dictator-and-i/</ref><ref>http://www.quora.com/Why-does-it-appear-that-Wikipedias-co-founder-is-covering-for-Kazakhstans-government-manipulation-of-Wikipedia</ref><ref>http://wikipediocracy.com/2013/01/16/whos-the-best-yoruban-wikipedian-of-them-all/</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=551703840&oldid=551703680</ref><ref>http://www.examiner.com/article/wikipedia-co-founder-jimmy-wales-denies-kazakhstan-connection</ref>
#[[Augusto Pinochet]], who overthrew [[communism]] in [[Chile]] and then restored democracy before voluntarily giving up power himself, is called a "dictator" by [[Wikipedia]],<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochet</ref> but [[Fidel Castro]], the communist dictator of [[Cuba]] for four decades, is instead called a "leader" or even a "president".<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fidel_Castro&oldid=235182888</ref>
# Wikipedia is sympathetic to Fidel Castro in its entry about Cuba.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba</ref> Wikipedia blames President Dwight Eisenhower for choosing "to attend a golf tournament" rather than meet the revolutionary Castro in 1959, and then Wikipedia claims that Castro became a communist because of the American-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Conservapedia tells the truth up-front: "Cuba has been ruled by a communist dictator named Fidel Castro since 1959."<ref>[[Cuba]]</ref>
# Wikipedia's article on far-left politics outright praises the dismantling of social structures and even goes on to say that the far-left promotes equality, while failing to mention the blatant anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hate speech among the far-left, its racism against whites in the form of Jeremiah Wright, the blatant racism among groups like Black Panthers. While its far-right politics articles accuse them of maintaining a social hierarchy and being racist and being supremacists that keep the "oppression" in check, while utterly failing to mention the black supremacist politics among the far-left. It promotes the far-left as bringing equality, while failing to mention its supremacist racism by people like NBP for example.

===Vaccines===
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Vaccination]]

=== General/Uncategorized ===
[[File:Jens Stoltenberg Norweigian PM 2005 Gothenburg.jpg|thumb|right|Jens Stoltenberg.]]
See [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: General or uncategorized]]
#Wikipedia falsely reported that the prime minister of Norway, [[Jens Stoltenberg]], was a pedophile who had served time in prison.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/06/wikipedia_bio/|title=Who owns your Wikipedia bio?|first= Andrew|last=Orlowski|work=The Register|date=December 6, 2005|accessdate=September 19, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5182883|title=
Wikipedia Bans Access from Capitol Hill Computers|work=National Public Radio|date=February 1, 2006|accessdate=September 20, 2012}}</ref>
#Wikipedia appeals to a dumbed-down culture of users that appreciate obscenity instead of education. The vulgar swear word referring to sex, F---, is mentioned in nearly 7,000 articles. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search] Most recently, it is used in an article about Republican Senate candidate [[Michael Baumgartner]] when the article's sources did not spell out that word.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Baumgartner&oldid=509330054|title=Michael Baumgartner|accessdate=August 27, 2012}}</ref>
#Wikipedia does its best to cover-up crimes and lewd behavior coming from left leaning [[Occupy Wall Street]] crowd. Assault emphasized, rape is minimized by the terms omission. Rape is not used in the article and can only be found in a reference title at the end of the page.<ref>Occupy_Wall_Street&oldid=466639949 Cover-up at Wikipedia,lewd acts downplayed</ref>
# Wikipedia does not mention until after 600 words that [[Jared Loughner]], like many Wikipedia editors, is an atheist, and its entry initially failed to admit that he is also a [[nihilist]], an extreme form of atheism.<ref>When Wikipedia eventually added mention of Loughner's nihilism, its edit summary omitted reference to the term. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jared_Lee_Loughner&action=historysubmit&diff=407362660&oldid=407358740].</ref>

{|
|bgcolor=yellow|    Most examples have been moved to the sublists. Please visit the sublists to learn about the variety of bias in Wikipedia.
|}

==Structural problems with Wikipedia==
Wikipedia claims to be "an encyclopedia that anyone can edit." That is both its strength and its biggest weakness. Although Wikipedia started as having all editors on an equal footing, it has evolved into a highly stratified structure where a large number of people cannot edit it. In order to edit Wikipedia, a person must master its wiki-markup language and a large number of complex rules. The number of people who edit Wikipedia on a regular basis has declined. Many editors left voluntarily, but many others have been "banned" or "blocked" by administrators or a community vote. In theory, people can edit Wikipedia without logging in, but in order to prevent "banned" users from editing, Wikipedia blocks various ranges of IP addresses, preventing persons who are '''not''' banned from editing from those locations, such as hotels, schools and libraries. Wikipedia's terms and conditions bar people with a conflict of interest from directly editing Wikipedia article. This prevents knowledgeable people who work for companies from editing article relating to their work. Finally, because the administrator caste has certain political views, editors who do not conform to those beliefs are more likely to be "banned" or "blocked".

A major source of bias comes from the Wikipedia pillar of "verifiability." Wikipedia proudly proclaims, "'''Verifiability, and not truth''', is one of the fundamental requirements for inclusion in Wikipedia;"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Verifiability&oldid=502902820|title=WP:Verifiability|accessdate=July 19, 2012}}</ref> There have been many attempts to change this because when a Wikipedia editor tries to remove false content, editors who favor biased content rely upon this policy to retain the falsehoods.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability/2012_RfC</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Verifiability/Archive_53#RFC_-_Compromise_proposal_re_first_sentence</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Mediation_Cabal/Cases/27_February_2012/Wikipedia:Verifiability</ref> An example of such misuse involve radical feminists who tried to have Wikipedia state that netball was an Olympic sport<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Netball_and_the_Olympic_Movement&oldid=420754256|title=Netball at the Olympics|date=March 26, 2011|author=Laura Hale}}</ref> when in fact it has never been played "at the Olympics." Because they found a speech where a politician told the New South Wales Parliament that netball was "technically an Olympic sport"<ref>Parliament of New South Wales, [http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20040921018 Parliamentary Debates,] Legislative Assembly, 21 September 2004, columns 11179–11179, (Alison Megarrity).</ref> they were able to retain this false material as if it were a verified fact.

Requiring just one source to meet Wikipedia's verifiability standard is a serious logical flaw. Any well-established fact can be contradicted by finding one obscure source somewhere on the web, and Wikipedia will allow just one reference to overrule the majority of definitive sources saying the opposite.

[[File:Girls Netball Team.jpg|thumb|right|250 px|An editor who was never in Malawi says this is a photo of a Malawian netball team. An edit war ensued.]]
Another bias is from "show and tell." Some Wikipedia editors have not outgrown their need to show off what they have found on the internet. Again using the obscure sport of netball as an example, the editor found a photo posted on flickr that was labeled, "The Girls Netball Team"<ref>http://www.flickr.com/photos/51132506@N00/1954358144</ref> even though it did not show anyone playing netball. The editor then captioned the photo, "A Malawian netball team" and placed it alongside a few other obscure facts to create a Malawi section of the netball article.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Netball&oldid=420915334</ref> So how can the reader trust that the people in the photograph are really in Malawi and that they really play netball?<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Netball_in_Africa#Malawi_image</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Netball/Archive_3#Should_image_of_Netball_players_not_playing_be_used</ref> Adding photos to articles is the most visible form of the "show and tell" syndrome. The need to "show and tell" can also result in including random, obscure facts and data in an article. For example, an editor can find a data source from years ago, but if the data is included in the article without proper emphasis of the date, it creates the implication that the data remains true today.<ref>E.g., {{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Netball_in_Brunei&diff=502678275&oldid=502670120|title=Netball in Brunei|date=July 16, 2012}}</ref>

Errors and bias can be introduced by robotic submissions. For example, many Wikipedia articles about populated places in the United States were created by robots using 2000 census data. A standard paragraph on demographics which included 2000 data was automatically included in each article. Wikipedia has not been able to program a robot to update all of those statistics, so most articles about places in the United States do not have more recent data from the 2010 census. Robots tagged many Wikipedia articles that had an article name in common with those in an early edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as having that book as a source—even if nothing in the article was based on that book, and no human checked if the Wikipedia article was consistent with the Britannica article.

Another level of error and bias comes from Wikipedia's reliance on poorly-trained volunteers instead of paid professionals. For example, someone proposed that a copyrighted photo of Joseph Stalin taken by [[Margaret Bourke-White]] be deleted in 2009.<ref>http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Joseph_Stalin.jpg</ref> It was kept because someone with a gmail account sent permission claiming to be her son. She died without children<ref>http://womenshistory.about.com/od/margaretbourkewhite/a/Margaret-Bourke-White.htm</ref> and the photo's copyrighted actually belonged to Time, Inc. but the mistake was not detected until 2012.

===Accountability===
Wikipedia relies upon volunteer administrators to maintain the accountability of the website and enforce its rules. The number of administrators continues to shrink. In January 2008, there were 1,011 administrators, but the number dropped to 661 in November 2012, and as of June 2016, the number stands at 539.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_administrators/stat_table|title=Wikipedia:List of administrators/stat table|accessdate=July 27, 2016}}</ref> The number drops because the process of selecting new administrators subjects each candidate to extensive abuse. If the action of Wikipedia administrators appears very odd, there is a possibility that it is because the actions are the product of anonymous, very young people or, in certain cases, of mentally ill people. For example, sysop Altenmann was desysopped and community-banned in April 2010 for sockpuppeting and improper closure of deletion discussions over a period of several years. He admitted mental illness and has been unbanned.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Arbitration_Committee/Noticeboard&oldid=491693521</ref>

Fundamentally, the owner of a website is accountable for its governance and contents. To qualify for a tax exemption, Wikipedia is owned by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] (WMF) that has a Board of Directors and a paid professional staff of 146.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/en|title=Frequently asked questions|accessdate=February 7, 2013}}</ref> However, the WMF, its Board, and Staff disavow any accountability for the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Instead, co-founder Jimmy Wales claims ultimate authority for it and acts as the executive/monarch on whatever he chooses. For example, although the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee is selected in an election, Wales accepts the election results and appoints the new members. As recently as September 2013, Wales claims to have the right to overturn Arbitration Committee decisions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=571759721&oldid=571756060If|title=User Talk:Jimbo Wales|date=September 6, 2013}}</ref> If a person has a complaint about being the victim of false libel by Wikipedia, the WMF disavows any control of the matter and hides behind Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. So, the WMF has a legal incentive to maintain a "hands-off" approach to content disputes. Its Board and Staff collect the charitable donations and meet IRS requirements, but Wales and the volunteer editors maintain the biased, defamatory site.

There have been lawsuits against Wikipedia and its editors. For example, Theodore Katsanevas, a Greek politician sued a Wikipedia editor and the WMF to seek removal of allegedly defamatory materials from the Greek Wikipedia. A Greek Court granted a preliminary injunction requiring the removal of material, but other editors have added it back in and have translated the biography with the offending material into 20 other languages. A full trial is expected in 2016, and the WMF has promised to pay all of the defendants' legal fees.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/02/14/wikimedia-foundation-supports-wikipedia-user-subject-to-defamation-lawsuit-in-greece/|title=Wikimedia Foundation supports Wikipedia user subject to defamation lawsuit in Greece|work=Wikimedia Blog|date=February 14, 2014|accessdate=March 20, 2014}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Hearsay society]]
*[[Wikipedia prejudice and KAL 007]] (Subject matter is [[New World Order]] and Cong. [[Larry McDonald]]. Article here in Conservapedia relates it to [[KAL 007]] as the subject matter bears directly).

==External links==
*[http://www.wikipediocracy.com Wikipedia criticism site]
*[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/21/conservatives-miss-wikipedias-threat/ SHEFFIELD: Conservatives miss Wikipedia's threat] by [[Washington Times]], August 21, 2008
* [http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83640 Wikipedia lies, slander continue by Joseph Farah]
*[http://www.paulbogdanor.com/200chomskylies.pdf The Top 200 Chomsky Lies]—Comprehensively debunks the claims of the [[Noam Chomsky|cult leader]] behind the radical left's talking points.
*[http://wikipediabias.com/ Wikipedia Bias blog]
*[http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/07/05/wikipedias-seven-worst-moments/ Wikipedia’s Seven Worst Moments] by Charlie Nash, ''Breitbart News'', July 5, 2016.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

'''Guidelines for inclusion''':
* Each entry must include a <code>diff</code> which shows the content being posted, and the user that posted it.
* Avoid mentioning posts that were made by new Wikipedians or anonymous Wikipedians, unless their biased edits were not reverted after a substantial amount of time.
* Please post the content to the appropriate sub article if possible.

{{Bias in wikipedia}}
[[Category:Wikis]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

China

2017-10-10T22:10:32Z

ChinesePaleocon: /* Human Rights */ Mao Zedong died in 1976

{{Country
|name =People's Republic of China ''Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó'' 中华人民共和国
|map =China rel01.jpg
|map2 =China location.png
|flag =Flag_of_the_PRC.png‎
|arms =Arms of PR China.png
|capital =Beijing
|capital-raw =
|government =Communist
|government-raw =
|language =Chinese (Mandarin)
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Xi Jinping
|premier =Li Keqiang
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =
|pm-raw =
|area =3,704,427 sq mi
|pop =1,336,000,000 (2011)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =
|gdp-year =$47.1564 trillion (2011)
|gdp-pc =$5,432 (2011)
|currency =Yuan
|idd =
|tld =
}}
'''China''' is the world's largest country by population, with a rapidly growing economy. With thousands of years of continuous traditions, in three decades it has dramatically changed itself from a poor backward nation to a world power, and is one of the world's top economies. It has emerged as a major regional power in East Asia, averaging over 9% economic growth per year since 1978 when it introduced a market-based economic system with many elements of capitalism, to replace its old socialism. Foreign businesses have flocked to invest in China, Americans and others rush to buy its cheap factory output, Chinese exports flooded the world. It has vast reserves of dollar holdings. China is modernizing its military, has joined numerous regional and international institutions, and plays an increasingly visible role in international politics.

The nation is under control from the [[Chinese Communist Party]], which encompasses mainland China, albeit with many border disputes. The Beijing claims [[Taiwan]] as a province, but the Taipei maintains its sovereignty.

[[Hong Kong]] was transferred back to Chinese control by the [[United Kingdom]] in 1997, and [[Macau]] was handed over by [[Portugal]] in 1999. Both territories are now [[Special Administrative Region]]s and have autonomy over local affairs. Since the 1950s China has increasingly asserted brutal control over [[Tibet]].

Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China represents a vast market that is growing more affluent and sophisticated while remaining a low-cost base for export-oriented production. Educationally, China is forging ahead as partnerships, and exchanges with foreign universities have helped create new research opportunities for its students. China used the Summer Olympics in 2008 to showcase to the world its amazing gains of the past two decades. The new leadership is committed to generating greater economic development in the interior and providing more services to those who do not live in China's coastal areas. However, there is still much that needs to change in China.

For more information on China, see [[World History Lecture Three]].

==Name==
{{language box
|s=中国
|t=中國
|l=central nation
|p=Zhōngguó
|w=Chung1-kuo2
}}
The word "China" is derived from the [[Persian language|Persian]] word ''Cin'' (چین), which is from the [[Sanskrit]] word ''Cīna'' (चीन).<ref name="AmHer">"[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/China?qsrc=2888 China]". ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (2000). Boston and New York: Houghton-Mifflin.</ref> It is first recorded in 1516 in the journal of the Portuguese explorer [[Duarte Barbosa]].<ref>"China". ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (1989). ISBN 0-19-957315-8. ''[http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=edzW9fuOF-cC&pg=PA211&dq=#v=onepage&q=%22Very%20Great%20Kingdom%20of%20China%22&f=false The Book of Duarte Barbosa]'' (chapter title "The Very Great Kingdom of China"). ISBN 81-206-0451-2. In the [http://purl.pt/435/ Portuguese original], the chapter is titled "O Grande Reino da China".</ref> The journal was translated and published in England in 1555.<ref>Eden, Richard (1555). ''Decades of the New World'': {{cite book | title=Western Views of China and the Far East, Volume 1 | publisher=Asian Research Service | year=1984 | page=34 |first=Henry Allen |last=Myers}}</ref> The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini, is that ''Cīna'' is derived from "Qin" (秦), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms during the [[Zhou Dynasty]].<ref name="Martini">Martino, Martin, ''Novus Atlas Sinensis'', Vienna 1655, Preface, p. 2.</ref> However, the word was used earlier in [[Hindu]] scripture, including the ''Mahābhārata'' (5th century BC) and the ''Laws of Manu'' (2nd century BC). Indian writers were not aware of China until the second century AD. Earlier usage of the word presumably refers to another entity, perhaps a country near the Tibetan-Burma border.<ref>See Liu, Lydia He, ''The Clash of Empires'', p. 77 Wade, Geoff. "[http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp188_yelang_china.pdf The Polity of Yelang and the Origin of the Name 'China']". ''[[Sino-Platonic Papers]]'', No. 188, May 2009, p. 20.</ref>

==People==
===Ethnic Groups===
[[File:Chinese people.jpg|right|250px]]
China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups. The largest ethnic group is the Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.9% of the total population. The remaining 8.1% are Zhuang (16 million), Manchu (10 million), Hui (9 million), Miao (8 million), [[Uighur]] (7 million), Yi (7 million), Mongolian (5 million), Tibetan (5 million), Buyi (3 million), Korean (2 million), and other ethnic minorities.

In July 2009 large scale rioting erupted as the [[Uighur]] minority fought Chinese riot police in major cities in China's western Xinjiang province. Hundreds are dead.<ref>See [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/world/asia/07kadeer.html?ref=world Wrik Eckholm, "China Points to Another Leader in Exile," ''New York Times'' July 6, 2009]</ref> Uighurs are angry at political, cultural and religious persecution as well as the growing presence in the region of Han Chinese - China's main ethnic group. Han now predominate in the cities, and Uighurs in the countryside. This is the first major violent unrest in China in two decades.

===Language===
[[File:China Ethnic language.jpg|thumb|left|Chinese Ethnolinguistic Groups.]]
There are seven major Chinese dialects and many subdialects. [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] (or Putonghua), the predominant dialect, is spoken by over 70% of the population. It is taught in all schools and is the medium of government. About two-thirds of the Han ethnic group are native speakers of Mandarin; the rest, concentrated in south and southeast China, speak one of the six other major Chinese dialects. Non-Chinese languages spoken widely by ethnic minorities include Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and other Turkic languages (in Xinjiang), and Korean (in the northeast).

All Chinese dialects use the same written character sets. In mainland China, the [[Simplified Chinese|Simplified]] characters have been in use since 1949.

====The Pinyin System of Romanization====
On January 1, 1979, the Chinese Government officially adopted the [[Hanyu pinyin|pinyin]] system for spelling Chinese names and places in Roman letters. A system of Romanization invented by the Chinese, pinyin has long been widely used in China on street and commercial signs as well as in elementary Chinese textbooks as an aid in learning Chinese characters and for common character input systems. Variations of pinyin also are used as the written forms of several minority languages.

Pinyin has now replaced other conventional spellings in China's English-language publications. The U.S. Government also has adopted the pinyin system for all names and places in China. For example, the capital of China is now spelled "Beijing" rather than "Peking."

In 2008 the anti-Communist government of Taiwan finally adopted the pinyin system, replaces the old [[Wade-Giles]] system which was increasingly ignored by the Chinese diaspora.

==Religion==
A February 2007 survey concluded that 31% of Chinese citizens ages 16 and over, representing 300 million persons, follow some kind of religion.<ref>This is approximately three times the official figure reported by the Government in April 2005.See [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108404.htm U.S. State Department "International Religious Freedom Report 2008"]</ref>

There are reportedly more than 100,000 officially recognized sites for religious activities, 300,000 officially recognized clergy, and more than 3,000 officially recognized religious organizations.
[[File:China B.jpg|left|280px]]
The Government officially recognizes five main religions: [[Buddhism]], [[Taoism]], [[Islam]], [[Catholicism]], and [[Protestantism]]. There are five state-sanctioned "Patriotic Religious Associations" (PRAs) that manage the activities of the recognized faiths. The Russian Orthodox Church operates in some regions, particularly those with large populations of Russian expatriates or with close links to Russia. Foreign residents in the country who belonged to religious faiths not officially recognized by the Government were generally permitted to practice their religions. There is very little freedom for Christians however.<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25502760</ref>

It is difficult to estimate the number of Buddhists and Taoists, because they do not have congregational memberships and many practice exclusively at home.

The Government estimated that there are 16,000 Buddhist temples and monasteries, 200,000 Buddhist monks and nuns, more than 1,700 reincarnate lamas, and 32 Buddhist schools. Most believers, particularly ethnic Han Buddhists, practice Mahayana Buddhism, while the majority of Tibetans and ethnic Mongolians, as well as a growing number of ethnic Chinese, practice Tibetan Buddhism, a Mahayana adaptation. Some ethnic minorities in southwest Yunnan Province practice Theravada Buddhism, the dominant tradition in parts of neighboring Southeast Asia.

There are more than 25,000 Taoist priests and nuns, more than 1,500 Taoist temples, and 2 Taoist schools. Traditional folk religions (worship of local gods, heroes, and ancestors) are practiced by hundreds of millions of citizens and are often affiliated with Taoism, Buddhism, or ethnic minority cultural practices.

The government says there are twenty million Muslims. Independent estimates range as high as fifty million or more. There are more than 40,000 Islamic places of worship (more than half of which are in the XUAR), more than 45,000 imams nationwide, and 10 Islamic schools. The country has ten predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, the largest of which is the Hui, estimated to number more than ten million. The Hui are centered in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, but there are significant concentrations of Hui throughout the country, including in Gansu, Henan, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Hebei Provinces, as well as in the TAR and the XUAR. Hui Muslims slightly outnumber Uighur Muslims, who live primarily in the XUAR. According to an official 2005 report, the XUAR had 23,900 mosques and 27,000 clerics at the end of 2004, but fewer than half of the mosques were authorized to hold Friday prayer and holiday services. The country also has more than one million Kazakh Muslims and thousands of Dongxiang, Kyrgyz, Salar, Tajik, Uzbek, Baoan, and Tatar Muslims.

Officials from the Three-Self Patriotic Movement/China Christian Council (TSPM/CCC), the state-approved Protestant religious organization, estimated that at least twenty million citizens worship in official churches. Government officials stated that there are more than 50,000 registered TSPM churches and 18 TSPM theological schools. The Pew Research Center estimates that between 50 million and 70 million Christians practice without state sanction. The World Christian Database estimates that there are more than 300 unofficial house church networks.

The Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) reports that 5.3 million persons worship in its churches and it is estimated that there are an additional 12 million or more persons who worship in unregistered Catholic churches that do not affiliate with the CPA. According to official sources, the government-sanctioned CPA has more than 70 bishops, nearly 3,000 priests and nuns, 6,000 churches and meeting places, and 12 seminaries. There are thought to be approximately 40 bishops operating "underground," some of whom are in prison or under house arrest. During the reporting period, at least three bishops were ordained with papal approval. In September 2007 the official media reported that Liu Bainian, CPA vice president, stated that the young bishops were to be selected to serve dioceses without bishops and to replace older bishops. Of the 97 dioceses in the country, 40 reportedly did not have an acting bishop in 2007, and more than 30 bishops were over 80 years of age.
===Religious discrimination===
The Government restricts legal religious practice to government-sanctioned organizations and registered religious groups and places of worship, and seeks to control the growth and scope of the activity of both registered and unregistered religious groups, including "house churches." Government authorities limit proselytism, particularly by foreigners and unregistered religious groups, but permit proselytism in state-approved religious venues and private settings. The Chinese government explicitly prohibits students and civil servants from participating in certain religious practices, even when not in school or at work.<ref>[https://news.yahoo.com/china-bans-ramadan-fast-muslim-northwest-103756197.html Didi Tang "China bans Ramadan fast in Muslim northwest." July 3, 2014. Associated Press.]</ref>
[[File:Great Mosque Xi an China.jpg|thumb|330px|Great Mosque of Xi'an.]]
In 2008, the Government's repression of religious freedom intensified in some areas, including in Tibetan areas and in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Unregistered Protestant religious groups in Beijing reported intensified harassment from government authorities in the lead up to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Media and China-based sources reported that municipal authorities in Beijing closed some house churches or asked them to stop meeting during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. During the reporting period, officials detained and interrogated several foreigners about their religious activities and in several cases alleged that the foreigners had engaged in "illegal religious activities" and cancelled their visas. Media reported that the total number of expatriates expelled by the Government due to concerns about their religious activities exceeded one hundred. Officials in the XUAR, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), and other Tibetan areas tightly controlled religious activity. The Government sought the forcible return of several Uighur Muslims living abroad, some of whom had reportedly protested restrictions on the Hajj and encouraged other Muslims to pray and fast during Ramadan. Followers of Tibetan Buddhism, including those in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region and most Tibetan autonomous areas, faced more restrictions on their religious practice and ability to organize than Buddhists in other parts of the country. "Patriotic education" campaigns in the TAR and other Tibetan regions, which required monks and nuns to sign statements personally denouncing the Dalai Lama, and other new restrictions on religious freedom were major factors that led monks and nuns to mount peaceful protests at a number of monasteries on March 10, 2008. The protests and subsequent security response gave way to violence in Lhasa by March 14 and 15.

"Underground" Roman Catholic clergy faced repression, in large part due to their avowed loyalty to the Vatican, which the Government accused of interfering in the country's internal affairs. The Government continued to repress groups that it designated as "cults," which included several Christian groups and Falun Gong.

Religious and ethnic minority groups such as Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims experienced societal discrimination not only because of their religious beliefs but also because of their status as ethnic minorities with distinct languages and cultures. After the March 2008 protests in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas there were reports of increased tensions between Tibetan Buddhists and Hui Muslims.

The [[Falun Gong]] is a self-described spiritual movement that blends aspects of Taoism, Buddhism, and the meditation techniques and physical exercises of qigong (a traditional Chinese exercise discipline), with the teachings of Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi. There are estimated to have been at least 2.1 million adherents of Falun Gong before the Government banned the group in 1999. Hundreds of thousands may practice Falun Gong privately.

==Population Policy==
[[Image:China Mex RGarciaOrtiz.jpg|right|Chinese at Mexico]]
{{main|One-child Policy}}

With a population officially just over 1.3 billion and an estimated growth rate of about 0.6%, China is very concerned about its population growth and has attempted with mixed results to implement a strict birth limitation policy. Until 2013 the government permitted one child per family, with allowance for a second child under certain circumstances (such as twins), especially in rural areas, and with guidelines looser for ethnic minorities with small populations. Enforcement varies, and relies largely on "social compensation fees" to discourage extra births. Official government policy opposed forced [[abortion]] or sterilization, but in some localities there were instances of forced [[abortion]]. The government's goal was to stabilize the population in the first half of the 21st century, and current projections are that the population would peak at around 1.6 billion by 2050. Boys are highly prized, and because screening of fetuses is done to determine gender, selective abortion has resulted in 119 boys born for every 100 girls. By 2020, 24 million men of marrying age will find themselves without wives.

2013 the government eased the One-child Policy strongly. Since then families in which at least one parent was an only child can have a second child now.<ref>http://cnsnews.com/news/article/china-ease-1-child-policy-abolish-labor-camps</ref>

==Government==
The People's Republic of China is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) constitutionally is the paramount source of power. Party members hold almost all top government, police, and military positions. Ultimate authority rests with the 25-member political bureau (Politburo) of the CCP and its nine-member standing committee. '''[[Hu Jintao]]''' holds the three most powerful positions as CCP general secretary, president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission. Civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces.

===Chinese Communist Party===
The 71 million member CCP, authoritarian in structure and ideology, continues to dominate government. Nevertheless, China's population, geographical vastness, and social diversity frustrate attempts to rule by fiat from Beijing. Central leaders must increasingly build consensus for new policies among party members, local and regional leaders, influential non-party members, and the population at large.

In periods of greater openness, the influence of people and organizations outside the formal party structure has tended to increase, particularly in the economic realm. This phenomenon is most apparent today in the rapidly developing coastal region. Nevertheless, in all important government, economic, and cultural institutions in China, party committees work to see that party and state policy guidance is followed and that non-party members do not create autonomous organizations that could challenge party rule. Party control is tightest in government offices and in urban economic, industrial, and cultural settings; it is considerably looser in the rural areas, where the majority of the people live.

Theoretically, the party's highest body is the Party Congress, which traditionally meets at least once every 5 years. The 17th Party Congress is expected to take place in the fall of 2007. The primary organs of power in the Communist Party include:
*The Politburo Standing Committee, which currently consists of nine members (one seat is vacant following the June 2, 2007 death of Huang Ju);
*The Politburo, consisting of 24 full members, including the members of the Politburo Standing Committee;
*The Secretariat, the principal administrative mechanism of the CCP, headed by the General Secretary;
*The Central Military Commission;
*The Discipline Inspection Commission, which is charged with rooting out corruption and malfeasance among party cadres.
===State Structure===
[[File:Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square in Beijing China.jpg|thumb|left|340px|In front of the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.]]
The Chinese Government has always been subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); its role is to implement party policies. The primary organs of state power are the National People's Congress (NPC), the President (the head of state), and the State Council. Members of the State Council include Premier Wen Jiabao (the head of government), a variable number of vice premiers (now four), five state councilors (protocol equivalents of vice premiers but with narrower portfolios), and 22 ministers and four State Council commission directors.

Under the Chinese constitution, the NPC is the highest organ of state power in China. It meets annually for about 2 weeks to review and approve major new policy directions, laws, the budget, and major personnel changes. These initiatives are presented to the NPC for consideration by the State Council after previous endorsement by the Communist Party's Central Committee. Although the NPC generally approves State Council policy and personnel recommendations, various NPC committees hold active debate in closed sessions, and changes may be made to accommodate alternate views.

When the NPC is not in session, its permanent organ, the Standing Committee, exercises state power.

{{Clear}}

===Principal Government and Party Officials===
*President—Xi Jinping
*Vice President—Li Yuanchao
*Premier, State Council—Li Keqiang
*NPC Chair—Wu Bangguo
*Vice Premier—Zhang Gaoli
*Politburo Standing Committee—Hu Jintao (General Secretary), Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun, Luo Gan
*Other Politburo Members—Cao Gangchuan, Guo Boxiong, He Guoqiang, Hui Liangyu, Liu Qi, Liu Yunshan, Wang Lequan, Wang Zhaoguo, Wu Yi, Yu Zhengsheng, Zeng Peiyan, Zhang Dejiang, Zhang Lichang, Zhou Yongkang, Wang Gang (alternate)
*Alternate Politburo Members—Wang Gang
*Chairman, Central Military Commission—Hu Jintao
*Foreign Minister—Yang Jiechi
*Minister of Commerce—Bo Xilai
*Minister of Finance—Jin Renqing
*Minister of Agriculture—Sun Zhengcai
*Minister of Information Industry—Wang Xudong
*Governor, People's Bank of China—Zhou Xiaochuan
*Minister, State Development and Reform Commission—Ma Kai
*Ambassador to U.S.--Zhou Wenzhong
*Ambassador to UN—Wang Guangya

===Foreign Relations===
[[Image:Chinese painting.jpg|thumb|Chinese painting.]]
Since its establishment, the People's Republic has worked vigorously to win international support for its position that it is the sole legitimate government of all China, including Hong Kong, Macau, and [[Taiwan]]. In the early 1970s, Beijing was recognized diplomatically by most world powers. [[Beijing]] (Pekin) assumed the China seat in the [[United Nations]] in 1971 and has since become increasingly active in multilateral organizations. Japan established diplomatic relations with China in 1972, and the United States did so in 1979. As of July 2007, the number of countries that have diplomatic relations with Beijing had risen to 167, while 24 maintained diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

After the founding of the P.R.C., China's foreign policy initially focused on solidarity with the Soviet Union and other communist countries. In 1950, China sent the People's Liberation Army into North Korea to help North Korea halt the UN offensive that was approaching the Yalu River. After the conclusion of the Korean conflict, China sought to balance its identification as a member of the Soviet bloc by establishing friendly relations with Pakistan and other Third World countries, particularly in Southeast Asia.

In the 1960s, Beijing competed with Moscow for political influence among communist parties and in the developing world generally. Following the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and clashes in 1969 on the Sino-Soviet border, Chinese competition with the Soviet Union increasingly reflected concern over China's own strategic position.

In late 1978, the Chinese also became concerned over Vietnam's efforts to establish open control over Laos and Cambodia. In response to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, China fought a brief border war with Vietnam (February–March 1979) with the stated purpose of "teaching Vietnam a lesson."

Chinese anxiety about Soviet strategic advances was heightened following the Soviet Union's December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. Sharp differences between China and the Soviet Union persisted over Soviet support for Vietnam's continued occupation of Cambodia, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Soviet troops along the Sino-Soviet border and in Mongolia—the so-called "three obstacles" to improved Sino-Soviet relations.

In the 1970s and 1980s China sought to create a secure regional and global environment for itself and to foster good relations with countries that could aid its economic development. To this end, China looked to the West for assistance with its modernization drive and for help in countering Soviet expansionism, which it characterized as the greatest threat to its national security and to world peace.
[[File:Map South Asia.jpg|left|400px]]
China maintained its consistent opposition to "superpower hegemony," focusing almost exclusively on the expansionist actions of the Soviet Union and Soviet proxies such as Vietnam and Cuba, but it also placed growing emphasis on a foreign policy independent of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. While improving ties with the West, China continued to follow closely economic and other positions of the Third World nonaligned movement, although China was not a formal member.

In the immediate aftermath of Tiananmen crackdown in June 1989, many countries reduced their diplomatic contacts with China as well as their economic assistance programs. In response, China worked vigorously to expand its relations with foreign countries, and by late 1990, had reestablished normal relations with almost all nations. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, China also opened diplomatic relations with the republics of the former Soviet Union.

In recent years, Chinese leaders have been regular travelers to all parts of the globe, and China has sought a higher profile in the UN through its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and other multilateral organizations. Closer to home, China has made efforts to reduce tensions in Asia, hosting the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, cultivating a more cooperative relationship with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and participating in the ASEAN Regional Forum. China has also taken steps to improve relations with countries in South Asia, including India. Following Premier Wen's 2005 visit to India, the two sides moved to increase commercial and cultural ties, as well as to resolve longstanding border disputes. The November 2006 visit of President Hu was the first state visit by a Chinese head of state to India in 10 years.

China has likewise improved ties with Russia, with Presidents Putin and Hu exchanging visits to Beijing and Moscow in April 2006 and March 2007. A second round of Russia-China joint military exercises is scheduled for fall 2007. China has played a prominent role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional grouping that includes Russia and the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Beijing has resolved many of its border and maritime disputes, notably including a November 1997 agreement with Russia that resolved almost all outstanding border issues and a 2000 agreement with Vietnam to resolve differences over their maritime border, though disagreements remain over islands in the South China Sea. Relations with Japan improved following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's October 2006 visit to Beijing, although longstanding and emotionally charged disputes over history and competing claims to portions of the East China Sea remain sources of tension.

While in many ways Sudan's primary diplomatic patron, China has played a constructive role in support of peacekeeping operations in Southern Sudan and pledged to contribute an engineering unit in support of UN operations in Darfur. China has stated publicly that it shares the international community's concern over Iran's nuclear program and has voted in support of UN sanctions resolutions on Iran. Set against this has been an effort on the part of China to maintain close ties to countries such as Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela, which are sources of oil and other resources and which welcome China's non-conditional assistance and investment.

==Political Conditions==
===Legal System===
The government's efforts to promote rule of law are significant and ongoing. After the Cultural Revolution, China's leaders aimed to develop a legal system to restrain abuses of official authority and revolutionary excesses. In 1982, the National People's Congress adopted a new state constitution that emphasized the rule of law under which even party leaders are theoretically held accountable.

Since 1979, when the drive to establish a functioning legal system began, more than 300 laws and regulations, most of them in the economic area, have been promulgated. The use of mediation committees—informed groups of citizens who resolve about 90% of China's civil disputes and some minor criminal cases at no cost to the parties—is one innovative device. There are more than 800,000 such committees in both rural and urban areas.

Legal reform became a government priority in the 1990s. Legislation designed to modernize and professionalize the nation's lawyers, judges, and prisons was enacted. The 1994 Administrative Procedure Law allows citizens to sue officials for abuse of authority or malfeasance. In addition, the criminal law and the criminal procedures laws were amended to introduce significant reforms. The criminal law amendments abolished the crime of "counter-revolutionary" activity, although many persons are still incarcerated for that crime. Criminal procedures reforms also encouraged establishment of a more transparent, adversarial trial process. The Chinese constitution and laws provide for fundamental human rights, including due process, but these are often ignored in practice. In addition to other judicial reforms, the Constitution was amended in 2004 to include the protection of individual human rights and legally-obtained private property, but it is unclear how those provisions will be implemented. Although new criminal and civil laws have provided additional safeguards to citizens, previously debated political reforms, including expanding elections to the township level, and other legal reforms, including the reform of the reeducation through labor system, have been put on hold.

==Military==
Establishment of a professional military force equipped with modern weapons and doctrine was the last of the "Four Modernizations" announced by Zhou Enlai and supported by Deng Xiaoping. In keeping with Deng's mandate to reform, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which includes the strategic nuclear forces, army, navy, and air force, has demobilized millions of men and women since 1978 and introduced modern methods in such areas as recruitment and manpower, strategy, and education and training.
[[File:China military.jpg|left]]
Following the June 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, ideological correctness was temporarily revived as the dominant theme in Chinese military affairs. Reform and modernization appear to have since resumed their position as the PLA's priority objectives.

The Chinese military is in the process of transforming itself from a land-based power, centered on a vast ground force, to a smaller, mobile, high-tech military eventually capable of mounting limited operations beyond its coastal borders.

China's power-projection capability is limited but has grown over recent years. China has acquired some advanced weapons systems from abroad, including Sovremmeny destroyers, SU-27 and SU-30 aircraft, and Kilo-class diesel submarines from Russia, and continued to develop domestic production capabilities, such as for the domestically-developed J-10 fighter aircraft. However, much of its air and naval forces continues to be based on 1960s-era technology. As the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review, released February 2006, noted, the U.S. shares with other countries a concern about the pace, scope, and direction of China's military modernization. We view military exchanges, visits, and other forms of engagement are useful tools in promoting transparency, provided they have substance and are fully reciprocal. Regularized exchanges and contact also have the significant benefit of building confidence, reducing the possibility of accidents, and providing the lines of communication that are essential in ensuring that episodes such as the April 2001 EP-3 aircraft incident do not escalate into major crises. During their April 2006 meeting, President Bush and President Hu agreed to increase officer exchanges and to begin a strategic nuclear dialogue between STRATCOM and the Chinese military's strategic missile command. U.S. and Chinese militaries are also considering ways in which we might cooperate on disaster assistance relief.

===Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Policy ===
In 1955, Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party decided to proceed with a nuclear weapons program; it was developed with Soviet assistance until 1960. After its first nuclear test in October 1964, Beijing deployed a modest but potent ballistic missile force, including land- and sea-based intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

China became a major international arms exporter during the 1980s. Beijing joined the Middle East arms control talks, which began in July 1991 to establish global guidelines for conventional arms transfers, but announced in September 1992 that it would no longer participate because of the U.S. decision to sell F-16A/B aircraft to Taiwan.

China was the first state to pledge "no first use" of nuclear weapons. It joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1984 and pledged to abstain from further atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in 1986. China acceded to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1992 and supported its indefinite and unconditional extension in 1995. In 1996, it signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and agreed to seek an international ban on the production of fissile nuclear weapons material. To date, China has not ratified the CTBT.

In 1996, China committed not to provide assistance to un-safeguarded nuclear facilities. China became a full member of the NPT Exporters (Zangger) Committee, a group that determines items subject to IAEA inspections if exported by NPT signatories. In September 1997, China issued detailed nuclear export control regulations. China began implementing regulations establishing controls over nuclear-related dual-use items in 1998. China also has committed not to engage in new nuclear cooperation with Iran (even under safeguards), and will complete existing cooperation, which is not of [[proliferation]] concern, within a relatively short period. In May 2004, with the support of the United States, China became a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Based on significant, tangible progress with China on nuclear nonproliferation, President Clinton in 1998 took steps to bring into force the 1985 U.S.-China Agreement on Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation.

===Missiles===
Although it is not a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the multinational effort to restrict the proliferation of missiles, in March 1992 China undertook to abide by MTCR guidelines and parameters. China reaffirmed this commitment in 1994, and pledged not to transfer MTCR-class ground-to-ground missiles. In November 2000, China committed not to assist in any way the development by other countries of MTCR-class missiles. However, in August 29, 2003, the U.S. Government imposed missile proliferation sanctions lasting two years on the Chinese company China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) after determining that it was knowingly involved in the transfer of equipment and technology controlled under Category II of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) Annex that contributed to MTCR-class missiles in a non-MTCR country.

In December 2003, the P.R.C. promulgated comprehensive new export control regulations governing exports of all categories of sensitive technologies.

==Economy ==
China's economy, based on rice and wheat farming, was generally prosperous until the 18th century. Population pressures, and failure to adopt new technology led to an impoverished nation by 1900.

After Mao's death the policy of modernization along Western lines has led to a remarkable rate of economic growth in the industrial cities, which have pulled in millions of peasants from the still poor rural areas. Slack environmental standards have led to serious pollution problems.

The modern Chinese economy has benefited from investments from Taiwan and Hong Kong. They jumped far ahead of China by 1970 in terms of technology, and in recent years have invested in mainland industries.

These two factors have changed Chinese economy, from a command economy to a more socialist state, with the Chinese economy increasingly in the hands of privately owned businesses, not state- or military-run enterprises. The 2001 declaration by Jiang Zemin (former leader of the Communist Party) of the "theory of three represents"—that the CCP represents not only workers, but also intellectuals and entrepreneurs—was an explicit affirmation of what had been a trend for the previous years

[[File:National Stadium, Beijing.jpg|thumb|250px|National Stadium, Beijing.]]
Since 1980 China has enjoyed the highest economic growth rates in the world. Suddenly in mid-2008, the growth rate slowed sharply from 11% a year to only 5.5%. Much of the economy was geared to exports, and building factories for exports to the United States and Japan. When the [[Financial Crisis of 2008]] hit, exports fell off and prices for industrial products like steel fell in half. Many factories were shut down. The decline has especially hit steel, cement and the construction industry. The government in November 2008 announced a $586 billion stimulus program to build roads, dams, electric grids and other infrastructure projects that are designed to supplement the international market.<ref>David Barboza, "Great Engine of China Slows ," [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/business/worldbusiness/26chinasteel.html?_r=1 ''New York Times'' Nov. 25, 2008]</ref>

Since 1979, China has largely rejected socialism and embraced capitalism, while maintaining Communist party rule. Private ownership of the means of production has dramatically reduced poverty and increased wealth, especially in the cities but also in rural areas. Nationally the GDP (in 2007 prices) has exploded from 2 trillion yuan in 1980 to 25 trillion in 2007.

As late as 1980 60% of the people in rural China lives in poverty; by 2007 fewer than 5% did. Grain production has grown 300 to 500 tons per person, and rural income per person has soared from a few hundred yuan in 1980 to over 4000.<ref>See ''Economist'' Dec. 13, 2008</ref>

The reforms reformed and opened its economy. The Chinese leadership has adopted a more pragmatic perspective on many political and socioeconomic problems, and has reduced the role of ideology in economic policy. China's ongoing economic transformation has had a profound impact not only on China but on the world. The market-oriented reforms China has implemented over the past two decades have unleashed individual initiative and entrepreneurship. The result has been the largest reduction of poverty and one of the fastest increases in income levels ever seen. China today is the fourth-largest economy in the world. It has sustained average economic growth of over 9.5% for the past 26 years. In 2006 its $2.76 trillion economy was about one-fifth the size of the U.S. economy.

In the 1980s, China tried to combine central planning with market-oriented reforms to increase productivity, living standards, and technological quality without exacerbating inflation, unemployment, and budget deficits. China pursued agricultural reforms, dismantling the commune system and introducing a household-based system that provided peasants greater decision-making in agricultural activities. The government also encouraged nonagricultural activities such as village enterprises in rural areas, and promoted more self-management for state-owned enterprises, increased competition in the marketplace, and facilitated direct contact between Chinese and foreign trading enterprises. China also relied more upon foreign financing and imports.

During the 1980s, these reforms led to average annual rates of growth of 10% in agricultural and industrial output. Rural per capita real income doubled. China became self-sufficient in grain production; rural industries accounted for 23% of agricultural output, helping absorb surplus labor in the countryside. The variety of light industrial and consumer goods increased. Reforms began in the fiscal, financial, banking, price-setting, and labor systems.

By the late 1980s, however, the economy had become overheated with increasing rates of inflation. At the end of 1988, in reaction to a surge of inflation caused by accelerated price reforms, the leadership introduced an austerity program.
[[File:Shanghai China CIA.jpg|thumb|left|280px|The Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai overlooks the Huangpu River.]]
China's economy regained momentum in the early 1990s. During a visit to southern China in early 1992, China's paramount leader at the time, Deng Xiaoping, made a series of political pronouncements designed to reinvigorate the process of economic reform. The 14th Party Congress later in the year backed Deng's renewed push for market reforms, stating that China's key task in the 1990s was to create a "socialist market economy." The 10-year development plan for the 1990s stressed continuity in the political system with bolder reform of the economic system.

China's economy grew at an average rate of 10% per year during the period 1990-2004, the highest growth rate in the world. China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 10.0% in 2003, and even faster, 10.1%, in 2004, and 9.9% in 2005 despite attempts by the government to cool the economy. China's total trade in 2006 surpassed $1.76 trillion, making China the world's third-largest trading nation after the U.S. and Germany. Such high growth is necessary if China is to generate the 15 million jobs needed annually—roughly the size of Ecuador or Cambodia—to employ new entrants into the job market.

Nevertheless, serious imbalances exist behind the spectacular trade performance, high investment flows, and high GDP growth. High numbers of non-performing loans weigh down the state-run banking system. Inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are still a drag on growth, despite announced efforts to sell, merge, or close the vast majority of SOEs.

Social and economic indicators have improved since reforms were launched, but rising inequality is evident between the more highly developed coastal provinces and the less developed, poorer inland regions. According to World Bank estimates, more than 152 million people in China in 2003—mostly in rural areas of the lagging inland provinces—still live in poverty, on consumption of less than U.S. $1 a day.

Following the Chinese Communist Party's Third Plenum, held in October 2003, Chinese legislators unveiled several proposed amendments to the state constitution. One of the most significant was a proposal to provide protection for private property rights. Legislators also indicated there would be a new emphasis on certain aspects of overall government economic policy, including efforts to reduce unemployment (now in the 8-10% range in urban areas), to rebalance income distribution between urban and rural regions, and to maintain economic growth while protecting the environment and improving social equity. The National People's Congress approved the amendments when it met in March 2004. The Fifth Plenum in October 2005 approved the 11th Five-Year Economic Program aimed at building a "harmonious society" through more balanced wealth distribution and improved education, medical care, and social security.

===Agriculture===
China is the world's most populous country and one of the largest producers and consumers of agricultural products. Roughly half of China's labor force is engaged in agriculture, even though only 10% of the land is suitable for cultivation and agriculture contributes only 13% of China's GDP. China's cropland area is only 75% of the U.S. total, but China still produces about 30% more crops and livestock than the U.S. because of intensive cultivation, China is among the world's largest producers of rice, corn, wheat, soybeans, vegetables, tea, and pork. Major non-food crops include cotton, other fibers, and oilseeds. China hopes to further increase agricultural production through improved plant stocks, fertilizers, and technology. Incomes for Chinese farmers are stagnating, leading to an increasing wealth gap between the cities and countryside. Government policies that continue to emphasize grain self-sufficiency and the fact that farmers do not own—and cannot buy or sell—the land they work have contributed to this situation. While this was the case in China before Communism, many other countries have since embrace individual ownership while China has not. In addition, inadequate port facilities and lack of warehousing and cold storage facilities impede both domestic and international agricultural trade.

===Industry===
{{History of China (full)}}
Industry and construction account for about 46% of China's GDP. Major industries are mining and ore processing; iron; steel; aluminum; coal, machinery; textiles and apparel; armaments; petroleum; cement; chemicals; fertilizers; consumer products including footwear, toys, and electronics; automobiles and other transportation equipment including rail cars and locomotives, ships, and aircraft; and telecommunications.

China has become a preferred destination for the relocation of global manufacturing facilities. Its strength as an export platform has contributed to incomes and employment in China. The state-owned sector still accounts for about 40% of GDP. In recent years, authorities have been giving greater attention to the management of state assets—both in the financial market as well as among state-owned-enterprises—and progress has been noteworthy.

===Regulatory Environment===
Though China's economy has expanded rapidly, its regulatory environment has not kept pace. Since Deng Xiaoping's open market reforms, the growth of new businesses has outpaced the government's ability to regulate them. This has created a situation where businesses, faced with mounting competition and poor oversight, will be willing to take drastic measures to increase profit margins, often at the expense of consumer safety. This issue has recently acquired more prominence, with a number of restrictions being placed on problematic Chinese exports by the U.S. The Chinese Government recognizes the severity of the problem, recently concluding that up to 20% of the country's products are substandard or tainted.

===Energy===
Together with strong economic growth, China's demand for energy is surging rapidly. In 2003, China surpassed Japan to become the second-largest consumer of primary energy, after the United States. China is the world's second-largest consumer of oil, after the United States, and for 2006, China's increase in oil demand represented 38% of the world total increase in oil demand. China is also the third-largest energy producer in the world, after the United States and Russia. China's electricity consumption is expected to grow by over 4% a year through 2030, which will require more than $2 trillion in electricity infrastructure investment to meet the demand. China expects to add approximately 15,000 megawatts of generating capacity a year, with 20% of that coming from foreign suppliers.

Coal makes up the bulk of China's energy consumption (70% in 2005), and China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world. As China's economy continues to grow, China's coal demand is projected to rise significantly. Although coal's share of China's overall energy consumption will decrease, coal consumption will continue to rise in absolute terms. China's continued and increasing reliance on coal as a power source has contributed significantly to putting China on the path to becoming the world's largest emitter of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide and green house gases, including carbon dioxide.

The 11th Five-Year Program, announced in 2005, calls for greater energy conservation measures, including development of renewable energy sources and increased attention to environmental protection. Moving away from coal towards cleaner energy sources including oil, natural gas, renewable energy, and nuclear power is an important component of China's development program. China has abundant hydroelectric resources; the Three Gorges Dam, for example, will have a total capacity of 18 gigawatts when fully on-line (projected for 2009). In addition, the share of electricity generated by nuclear power is projected to grow from 1% in 2000 to 5% in 2030. China's renewable energy law, which went into effect in 2006, calls for 10% of its energy to come from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Since 1993, China has been a net importer of oil, a large portion of which comes from the Middle East. Net imports are expected to rise to 3.5 million barrels per day by 2010. China is interested in diversifying the sources of its oil imports and has invested in oil fields around the world. Beijing also plans to increase China's natural gas production, which currently accounts for only 3% of China's total energy consumption. Analysts expect China's consumption of natural gas to more than double by 2010.

In May 2004, then-Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) that launched the U.S.-China Energy Policy Dialogue. The Dialogue has strengthened energy-related interactions between China and the United States, the world's two largest energy consumers. The U.S.-China Energy Policy Dialogue builds upon the two countries' existing cooperative ventures in high energy nuclear physics, fossil energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy and energy information exchanges. The NDRC and the Department of Energy also exchange views and expertise on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Technologies, and we convene an annual Oil and Gas Industry Forum with China.

===Environment===
[[Image:Tianmenshan mountain.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Tian Shan, Gong Yuan, or Sky Mountain park, literally, is a world heritage site.]]
One of the serious negative consequences of China's rapid industrial development has been increased pollution and degradation of natural resources. China is widely expected to surpass the United States as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases sometime in 2007 or 2008. A World Health Organization report on air quality in 272 cities worldwide concluded that seven of the world's 10 most polluted cities were in China. According to China's own evaluation, two-thirds of the 338 cities for which air-quality data are available are considered polluted—two-thirds of them moderately or severely so. Respiratory and heart diseases related to air pollution are the leading cause of death in China. Almost all of the nation's rivers are considered polluted to some degree, and half of the population lacks access to clean water. By some estimates, every day approximately 300 million residents drink contaminated water. Ninety percent of urban water bodies are severely polluted. Water scarcity also is an issue; for example, severe water scarcity in Northern China is a serious threat to sustained economic growth and the government has begun working on a project for a large-scale diversion of water from the Yangtze River to northern cities, including Beijing and Tianjin. Acid rain falls on 30% of the country. Various studies estimate pollution costs the Chinese economy 7%-10% of GDP each year.

China's leaders are increasingly paying attention to the country's severe environmental problems. In 1998, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) was officially upgraded to a ministry-level agency, reflecting the growing importance the Chinese Government places on environmental protection. In recent years, China has strengthened its environmental legislation and made some progress in stemming environmental deterioration. In 2005, China joined the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development, which brings industries and governments together to implement strategies that reduce pollution and address climate change. During the 10th Five-Year Plan, China plans to reduce total emissions by 10%. Beijing in particular is investing heavily in pollution control as part of its campaign to host a successful Olympiad in 2008. Some cities have seen improvement in air quality in recent years.

China is an active participant in climate change talks and other multilateral environmental negotiations, taking environmental challenges seriously but pushing for the developed world to help developing countries to a greater extent. It is a signatory to the Basel Convention governing the transport and disposal of hazardous waste and the Montreal Protocol for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, as well as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and other major environmental agreements.

The question of environmental impacts associated with the Three Gorges Dam project has generated controversy among environmentalists inside and outside China. Critics claim that erosion and silting of the Yangtze River threaten several endangered species, while Chinese officials say the dam will help prevent devastating floods and generate clean hydroelectric power that will enable the region to lower its dependence on coal, thus lessening air pollution.

The United States and China are members of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP). The APP is a public-private partnership of six nations—Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States—committed to explore new mechanisms to meet national pollution reduction, energy security and climate change goals in ways that reduce poverty and promote economic development. APP members have undertaken cooperative activities involving deployment of clean technology in partner countries in eight areas: cleaner fossil energy, renewable energy and distributed generation, power generation and transmission, steel, aluminum, cement, coal mining, and buildings and appliances.

The United States and China have been engaged in an active program of bilateral environmental cooperation since the mid-1990s, with an emphasis on clean energy technology and the design of effective environmental policy. While both governments view this cooperation positively, China has often compared the U.S. program, which lacks a foreign assistance component, with those of Japan and several European Union (EU) countries that include generous levels of aid.

===Science and Technology===
Science and technology have always preoccupied China's leaders; indeed, China's political leadership comes almost exclusively from technical backgrounds and has a high regard for science. Deng called it "the first productive force." Distortions in the economy and society created by party rule have severely hurt Chinese science, according to some Chinese science policy experts. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, modeled on the Soviet system, puts much of China's greatest scientific talent in a large, under-funded apparatus that remains largely isolated from industry, although the reforms of the past decade have begun to address this problem.

Chinese science strategists see China's greatest opportunities in newly emerging fields such as biotechnology and computers, where there is still a chance for China to become a significant player. Most Chinese students who went abroad have not returned, but they have built a dense network of trans-Pacific contacts that will greatly facilitate U.S.-China scientific cooperation in coming years. The U.S. space program is often held up as the standard of scientific modernity in China. China's small but growing space program, which successfully completed their second manned orbit in October 2005, is a focus of national pride.

The U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement remains the framework for bilateral cooperation in this field. A 5-year agreement to extend the Science and Technology Agreement was signed in April 2006. The Agreement is among the longest-standing U.S.-China accords, and includes over eleven U.S. Federal agencies and numerous branches that participate in cooperative exchanges under the S&T Agreement and its nearly 60 protocols, memoranda of understanding, agreements and annexes. The Agreement covers cooperation in areas such as marine conservation, renewable energy, and health. Biennial Joint Commission Meetings on Science and Technology bring together policymakers from both sides to coordinate joint science and technology cooperation. Executive Secretaries meetings are held biennially to implement specific cooperation programs. Japan and the European Union also have high-profile science and technology cooperative relationships with China.
====Internet====
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has criticized Chinese censorship and restrictions on the Intrernet, and China is pushing back since the Communist Party considers Internet control essential if it is to keep power and avoid elections. The government has denied suggestions by Google that a major, sophisticated assault on Google in late 2009 was sponsored by the government. The attack targeted email accounts used by dissidents, the weak point in China's political dictatorship. Google is threatening to ignore the censorship policies demanded by the government, and perhaps leave the country. The Communist Party promotes Internet use for commerce, but heavily censors content it deems pornographic, anti-social or politically subversive and blocks many foreign news and social media sites, including Twitter Facebook, and YouTube.

===Poor Medical care===
China, like most Communist countries, gives low priority to medicine and medical care. China only spends 1% of GDP on health care, ranking #156 out of 196 nations surveys by the World Health Organization. Many people rely on traditional practitioners, having more faith in acupuncture than modern science. In any case few have the opportunity to receive modern drugs or treatment with advanced devices. The local clinic has only a thermometer and stethoscope for instrumentation, and very few modern drugs. Only one in six medical personnel have a college degree, and those degrees are not high quality. The ordinary people want more medical care but that hardly matters, for in a dictatorship violence matters, but not public opinion.<ref>Gordon Fairclaugh, "In China, Rx for Ailing Health System," ''Wall Street Journal,'' Oct. 15, 2009</ref>

===Trade===
China's merchandise exports totaled $969.3 billion and imports totaled $791.8 billion in 2006. Its global trade surplus surged from $32 billion in 2004 to $177.5 billion in 2006. China's primary trading partners include Japan, the EU, the United States, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. According to U.S. statistics, China had a trade surplus with the U.S. of $232.6 billion in 2006.

China has taken important steps to open its foreign trading system and integrate itself into the world trading system. In November 1991, China joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group, which promotes free trade and cooperation in the economic, trade, investment, and technology spheres. China served as APEC chair in 2001, and Shanghai hosted the annual APEC leaders meeting in October of that year.

China formally joined the WTO in December 2001. As part of this far-reaching trade liberalization agreement, China agreed to lower tariffs and abolish market impediments. Chinese and foreign businessmen, for example, gained the right to import and export on their own, and to sell their products without going through a government middleman. By 2005, average tariff rates on key U.S. agricultural exports dropped from 31% to 14% and on industrial products from 25% to 9%. The agreement also opens up new opportunities for U.S. providers of services like banking, insurance, and telecommunications. China has made significant progress implementing its WTO commitments, but serious concerns remain, particularly in the realm of intellectual property rights protection.

While accession does not guarantee smaller trade deficits, full implementation of all WTO commitments would further open China's markets to—and help level the playing field for—U.S. exports. China is now one of the most important markets for U.S. exports: in 2006, U.S. exports to China totaled $55.2 billion, almost triple the $19 billion when China joined the WTO in 2001 and up 32% over 2005. U.S. agricultural exports have increased dramatically, making China our fourth-largest agricultural export market (after Canada, Japan, and Mexico). Over the same period (2001-2006), U.S. imports from China have risen from $102 billion to $287.8 billion.

Export growth continues to be a major driver of China's rapid economic growth. To increase exports, China has pursued policies such as fostering the rapid development of foreign-invested factories, which assemble imported components into consumer goods for export, and liberalizing trading rights. In its eleventh Five-Year Program, adopted in 2005, China placed greater emphasis on developing a consumer demand-driven economy to sustain economic growth and address global imbalances.

The United States is one of China's primary suppliers of power generating equipment, aircraft and parts, computers and industrial machinery, raw materials, and chemical and agricultural products. However, U.S. exporters continue to have concerns about fair market access due to strict testing and standards requirements for some imported products. In addition, a lack of transparency in the regulatory process makes it difficult for businesses to plan for changes in the domestic market structure. The April 11, 2006 U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) produced agreements on key U.S. trade concerns ranging from market access to U.S. beef, medical devices, and telecommunications; to the enforcement of intellectual property rights, including, significantly, software. The JCCT also produced an agreement to establish a U.S.-China High Technology and Strategic Trade Working Group to review export control cooperation and facilitate high technology trade.

===Foreign Investment===
China's investment climate has changed dramatically in 24 years of reform. In the early 1980s, China restricted foreign investments to export-oriented operations and required foreign investors to form joint-venture partnerships with Chinese firms. Foreign direct investment (FDI) grew quickly during the 1980s, but stalled in late 1989 in the aftermath of Tiananmen. In response, the government introduced legislation and regulations designed to encourage foreigners to invest in high-priority sectors and regions. Since the early 1990s, China has allowed foreign investors to manufacture and sell a wide range of goods on the domestic market, and authorized the establishment of wholly foreign-owned enterprises, now the preferred form of FDI. However, the Chinese Government's emphasis on guiding FDI into manufacturing has led to market saturation in some industries, while leaving China's services sectors underdeveloped. China is now one of the leading recipients of FDI in the world, receiving almost $80 billion in 2005 according to World Bank statistics.

As part of its WTO accession, China undertook to eliminate certain trade-related investment measures and to open up specified sectors that had previously been closed to foreign investment. New laws, regulations, and administrative measures to implement these commitments are being issued. Major remaining barriers to foreign investment include opaque and inconsistently enforced laws and regulations and the lack of a rules-based legal infrastructure.

Opening to the outside remains central to China's development. Foreign-invested enterprises produce about half of China's exports, and China continues to attract large investment inflows. Foreign exchange reserves were $1.1 trillion at the end of 2006, and have now surpassed those of Japan, making China's foreign exchange reserves the largest in the world.
===Higher education===
Despite fears that China may be outpacing the United States in turning out engineers, the number of college students in China who study engineering is on the decline, according to ''Global Times'', a Chinese newspaper. Fewer than one in 10 college graduates in 2009 majored in engineering. Instead, students are turning to economics, finance, and management, which pay more and carry more social status. "Engineering usually makes people think of factories, while factories often give people an impression of hard work, low wages, and layoffs," the newspaper quoted one professor as saying.

Meanwhile, China is building universities overnight, and sending graduate students to the U.S. for PhD's so they can become professors.

The exodus of Chinese undergraduate and graduate students continues; as 180,000 left in 2008, about 25% percent more than in 2007, as more families were able to pay overseas tuition. For every four students who left in the past decade, only one returned; those with American PhDs in science or engineering the least likely to return. The intellectual vitality, quality of science, pay scales and political climate is much more attractive in the West. Those who return to China risk being shunned as "foreigners".<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/world/asia/07scholar.html?hp Sharon LaFraniera, "Fighting Trend, China Is Luring Scientists Home," ''New York Times'' Jan. 6. 2010]</ref>
===The Chinese in Africa===
China has been spending huge amounts of money and time buying influence in various African countries.<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2011/0217/China-s-latest-trade-visit-to-Africa-reveals-a-different-approach-to-business]</ref> China has given 45 Afriacn countries $115 billion, a figure which is growing at 44% every year. Africa has many desirable resources such as [[diamonds]], [[oil]], and rare earth metals such as [[Indium]] which is used to make the touch screens for new high-tech devices such as [[Apple]]'s [[iPad]]<ref>[http://blogs.indium.com/blog/an-interview-with-the-professor/assembled-cost-of-an-ipad]</ref> and [[iPhone]], often under [[sweat shop]] conditions.

China's aim in Africa seems to be to buy up the emerging markets of the developing nations there. China has a big population, but does not have many of the resources (see above) that they will need to improve themselves. When countries go through [[industrialization]] they need to use a lot more resources, and China does not have them. By buying up Africa they get these natural resources cheaply. They will also be able to use these resources as poker chips against the west.
US ambassador [[Johnnie Carson]] believes "China has no morals" in Africa,<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/09/cable-kenya-risks-new-violence-reforms/]</ref> which may be true given their [[communist]] ideology.

== History ==
{{main|History of China}}

Although archaeologists have found settlements in China dating to [[5000 BC]], the earliest nation that can be dated in the area of modern China is the [[Shang Dynasty]], approximately [[2000 BC]].
[[File:Great Wall of China.jpg|left|240px]]
Dynasty followed dynasty, as old regimes would lose the "mandate of heaven;" it was believed that each emperor ruled only with the approval of heaven, and a ruler who was unfit to rule would curse the nation until replaced. In addition, the Chinese capital would occasionally be overrun by "barbarians," who invariably would start a new dynasty in the Chinese capital, integrating their nations into the former dynasty.

Chinese had an advanced artistic culture and well-developed science and technology. However, its science and technology stood still after 1700 and in the 21st century very little survives outside museums, except in for the popular forms of traditional medicine.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by large-scale civil wars, major famines, military defeats by Britain and Japan, regional control by powerful warlords and foreign intervention such as the [[Boxer Rebellion]] of 1900. In 1911 a revolution deposed the [[Qing dynasty]] and the [[Republic of China]] was proclaimed.

Under the leadership of the [[KMT]] (Kuomintang), headed by [[Chiang Kai-shek]] (1887-1975), the central government finally suppressed the local warlords who effectively controlled many provinces. The KMT tried to destroy the Communists under [[Mao Zedong]], but they escaped in the "Long March" of 1934-35. Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, and in 1937 invaded all of China, seizing the coast, the major cities, and setting up a puppet government that controlled most of the population. China was allied with the U.S. and Britain against Japan, and at war's end joined the United Nations as a permanent member of the 5-nation Security Council, with a veto.

In 1945-46, the U.S. attempted to force a negotiated settlement between the KMT and the Communists, but failed. In the face of economic collapse the Communists won the civil war in 1949 under [[Mao Zedong]] established a dictatorship, driving the KMT to Taiwan. Taiwan is recognized as an integral part of China in theory, but in practice has been independent since 1949.

Mao liquidated millions of opponents, fought the United States in the bloody [[Korean War]] (1950–53), and around 1960 broke bitterly with the Soviet Union over the issue of who best represented the Marxist orthodoxy. Mao's regime imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people.

After 1978, Mao's successor [[Deng Xiaoping]] focused on market-oriented economic development, and by 2000 output had quadrupled, population growth ended (by imposing a one-child policy), and good relations were secured with the West. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls and Internet censorship remain tight.

China's economy during the last quarter century has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade, to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy.

== Human Rights ==
Under Mao millions of Chinese were killed by famines or government action against the middle classes. The "[[Cultural Revolution]]" in the 1960s was a counterattack against intellectuals endorsed by Mao; it set back China by decades until his death in 1976.

After the mid-1980s the new leader [[Deng Xiaoping]] promoted rapid modernization. While Mao's memory was still revered, most of his brutal policies were ended and much economic freedom—and a dash of political liberalization—was allowed. Intellectuals were encouraged to speak out again and to share in a new spirit of "democratization." However Communist party leaders in 1986 warned that modernization must not be used as an excuse to introduce "bourgeois philosophies and social doctrines." By late 1986 student groups began to demonstrate demanding more student participation in local government, a greater degree of democracy, and better living conditions. As demonstrations escalated Hu Yaobang, the general secretary of the party, resigned, confessing that he had made major mistakes and would take responsibility for them. It was a setback to political and economic liberalization, though Hu remained, out of office, a symbol of the potential for democracy. Hu's death in April 1989, sparked widespread public rallies in favor of broad social changes in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities. Tens of thousands of students defied a government clampdown to demonstrate in May in [[Tiananmen Square]] central Beijing. The Party moved to kill dissent, sending uneducated rural troops into square on June 3–4; hundreds of demonstrators were killed, wounded, or arrested. The world was appalled. Following the savage repression of democrats in all major cities Deng Xiaoping appeared to be even more firmly in control.

The China country reports in the U.S. State Department's 2009 Human Rights Practices and International Religious Freedom Reports<ref>See [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eap/119037.htm U.S. State Department, ''2008 Human Rights Report: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)'' Feb. 25, 2009]</ref> noted China's well-documented and continuing abuses of human rights in violation of internationally recognized norms, stemming both from the authorities' intolerance of dissent and the inadequacy of legal safeguards for basic freedoms. Reported abuses have included arbitrary and lengthy incommunicado detention, forced confessions, torture, and mistreatment of prisoners as well as severe restrictions on freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, religion, privacy, worker rights, and coercive birth limitation. In 2006, China continued the monitoring, harassment, intimidation, and arrest of journalists, Internet writers, defense lawyers, religious activists, and political dissidents. The activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), especially those relating to the rule of law and expansion of judicial review, continue to be restricted.

In 2008 China loosened its restrictions somewhat for the Summer Olympics. The government arbitrarily closes down Internet access to prevent the people from learning about the world.

Human rights failures remain a major concern. Abatement of pollution and improvements in systems to ensure food, drug, and product safety are major concerns, especially after notorious episodes of exporting poisoned pet food, toothpaste and infant formula.
===Repression in 2008===
In 2008 China's human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas. During the year the government increased its severe cultural and religious repression of ethnic minorities in Tibetan areas and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), increased detention and harassment of dissidents and petitioners, and maintained tight controls on freedom of speech and the Internet. Abuses peaked around high-profile events, such as the Olympics and the unrest in Tibet. As in previous years, citizens did not have the right to change their government. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), both local and international, continued to face intense scrutiny and restrictions. Other serious human rights abuses included extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners, and the use of forced labor, including prison labor. Workers cannot choose an independent union to represent them in the workplace, and the law does not protect workers' right to strike. The government continued to monitor, harass, detain, arrest, and imprison journalists, writers, activists, and defense lawyers and their families, many of whom were seeking to exercise their rights under the law.<ref>See [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eap/119037.htm U.S. State Department, ''2008 Human Rights Report: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)'' Feb. 25, 2009]</ref>
===Execution Controversy===
In December 2009, China executed a man named Akmal Shaikh for drug smuggling. There is evidence that Shaikh was mentally ill, but he was not given a psychological exam of any sort before the trial. He was not given an examination because the Chinese government declared that neither Shaikh or his family could prove he was mentally ill through documentation or family history. The British government made many requests for clemency, including at an eleventh-hour meeting with the Chinese ambassador, but they were consistently ignored.<ref>http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-britain-china30-2009dec30,0,4153003.story</ref>

== China and obesity ==

[[File:Flag of the PRC.png|thumbnail|250px|right|China has the largest atheist population in the world.<ref>
*[http://www.thechapmans.nl/news/Atheist.pdf Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics (Zuckerman, 2005)]
*[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/23/a-surprising-map-of-where-the-worlds-atheists-live/ A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live], ''Washington Post'' By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey May 23, 2013</ref> In 2014, the British medical journal'' Lancet'' reported that the Chinese now have the second highest obesity rate in the world.<ref>[http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/29/as-obesity-rises-chinese-kids-are-almost-as-fat-as-americans/ As Obesity Rises, Chinese Kids Are Almost as Fat as Americans], ''Wall Street Journal'' Chinarealtime, May 29, 2014</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgJvV62yD2E Chubby China: Nation of 300 Million Overweight People]</ref>

A recent study published in the ''Obesity Reviews'' journal, found that Chinese teenagers' rate of [[diabetes]] was four times that of their [[United States|American]] peers.<ref>[http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-09/14/content_26521029.htm Obesity is a growing concern in China] By Pang Li, China.org.cn, September 14, 2012</ref>]]
''See also:'' [[China and obesity]] and [[Atheism and obesity]]

In 2014, it was reported that China's obesity rate has skyrocketed in the last 30 years and the Chinese now have the second highest obesity rate in the world.<ref>[http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/29/as-obesity-rises-chinese-kids-are-almost-as-fat-as-americans/ As Obesity Rises, Chinese Kids Are Almost as Fat as Americans], ''Wall Street Journal'' Chinarealtime, May 29, 2014</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgJvV62yD2E Chubby China: Nation of 300 Million Overweight People]</ref> The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported in 2014 that China had approximately 300 million overweight people.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgJvV62yD2E Chubby China: Nation of 300 Million Overweight People]</ref> In 2014, the British medical journal ''Lancet'' analyzed weight trends in 188 countries and reported that more than 28% of Chinese adult men and 27% of the country’s adult women are now overweight or obese.<ref>[http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/29/as-obesity-rises-chinese-kids-are-almost-as-fat-as-americans/ As Obesity Rises, Chinese Kids Are Almost as Fat as Americans], ''Wall Street Journal'' Chinarealtime, May 29, 2014</ref>

According to a 2012 report by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of obese children in China has reached 120 million.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_yk-aM0cyk Child Obesity Reaches 120 Million in China]</ref> A recent study published in the ''Obesity Reviews'' journal, found that Chinese teenagers' rate of [[diabetes]] was four times that of their [[United States|American]] peers.<ref>[http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-09/14/content_26521029.htm Obesity is a growing concern in China] By Pang Li, China.org.cn, September 14, 2012</ref> Due to their past [[One-child Policy|one-child policy]], which had exceptions, China now has a lot of over-pampered and over-fed children.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuf8yg0Dbig Rising Chinese Child Obesity and Fat Camps]</ref>

Matthew Crabbe, co-author of "Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation" declared that China's surging rate of obesity is "a ticking bomb" underneath the country's future economic growth and healthcare system.<ref>[http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-09/14/content_26521029.htm Obesity is a growing concern in China] By Pang Li, China.org.cn, September 14, 2012</ref>

==Further reading==
* Chow, Gregory C. ''China's Economic Transformation'' (2nd ed. 2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Economic-Transformation-Gregory-Chow/dp/1405156244/ref=pd_sim_b_img_3 excerpt and text search]
* Eberharad, Wolfram. ''A History of China'' (2005), 380 pages' [http://books.google.com/books?id=5LgjunIn1CEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:history+intitle:china&num=30&as_brr=1&sig=k1CgHXYb6jQ6BgdwVpUWngov7So full text online free]
* Entwisle, Barbara, and Gail E. Henderson, eds. ''Re-Drawing Boundaries: Work, Households, and Gender in China,'' U of California Press, 2000; on 1990; [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt938nd0k8/?&query=&brand=ucpress complete text online free]
* Fairbank, John King and Goldman, Merle. ''China: A New History.'' (1998). 546 pp.
* Gries, Peter Hays. ''China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy,'' U of California Press, (2004); recent history [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt9290249r/?&query=&brand=ucpress online edition free]
* Kang, David C. ''China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia'' (2007), argues a strong China stabilizes East Asia
* Naughton, Barry. ''The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth'' (2007), important new survey
*Ogden S. (ed) ''China.'' (2006)
* Oi, Jean C. ''Rural China Takes Off: Institutional Foundations of Economic Reform,'' U of California Press, (1999) [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft8j49p1hv/?&query=&brand=ucpress complete text online free]
* Perkins, Dorothy. ''Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History and Culture.'' (1999). 662 pp.
* Rawski, Thomas G. and Lillian M. Li, eds. ''Chinese History in Economic Perspective,'' University of California Press, 1992 [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6489p0n6/?&query=&brand=ucpress online free]
* Roberts, J. A. G. ''A Concise History of China.'' (1999). 341 pp.
* Schoppa, R. Keith. ''The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History.'' (2000). 356 pp. [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-columbia-guide-to-modern-chinese-history-by-r-keith-schoppa.jsp online edition]
* Shambaugh, David. ''China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation'' (2009)
* Shambaugh, David. ''Modernizing China's Military: Progress, Problems, and Prospects'' U of California Press, (2003) [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt4779q33t/?&query=&brand=ucpress complete text online free]
* Spence, Jonathan D. ''The Search for Modern China'' (1991), 876pp; well written survey from 1644 to 1980s [http://www.amazon.com/Search-Modern-China-Jonathan-Spence/dp/0393307808/ref=pd_sim_b_title_2 excerpt and text search]; [http://www.questia.com/read/98946348 complete edition online]
* Wang, Ke-wen, ed. ''Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism.'' (1998). 442 pp.

==See also==
*[[Atheistic China and alcoholism]]
*[[Atheistic China and loneliness]]
*[[Chinese History]]
*[[Chinese Painting]]
*[[China and involuntary organ harvesting]]
*[[Great Wall of China]]
*[[Oriental art]]
*[[Previous Breaking News/China|Articles about '''China''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
* [[Nuclear target structures]]
*[[Chinese National Day]]
*[[China and obesity]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.chinadetail.com/Nation/ All About China]
*[http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/china/home.html People's Daily: China at a Glance]
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1287798.stm BBC News - ''Country Profile: China'']
*[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html CIA World Factbook - ''China'']
*[http://www.monthlyreview.org/1105wu.htm "Rethinking ‘Capitalist Restoration’ in China"] by Yiching Wu
*[http://www.gov.cn/ The Central People's Government of People's Republic of China]
*[http://www.china.org.cn/ China's Official Gateway for News & Information]
*[http://www.globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=341 The Dragon's Dawn: China as a Rising Imperial Power] February 11, 2005.
*[http://www.china-profile.com/history/hist_list_1.htm History of The People's Republic of China] Timeline of Key Events since 1949.
*[http://www.danwei.org/ Media, advertising, and urban life in China.]
*[http://factoidz.com/the-largest-ethnic-group-in-the-world-han-chinese-of-china/ The Largest Ethnic Group in the World: Han Chinese of China.]

{{Asian Countries}}
[[Category:China]]
[[Category:Communist States]]
[[Category:Oppression]]
[[Category:Anti-American]]
[[Category:Police State]]
[[Category:Welfare State]]
[[Category:Nuclear Target Structures]]