China's top leadership body is the Politburo which has 25 members. Of these, nine make up the Standing Committee which is the Chinese government's most important decision-making group. Seven of the nine are expected to be replaced this year. One of the candidates to fill these vacancies, Bo Xilai, was recently ousted in a scandal. Not surprisingly, much of the reporting on this incident is censored in China. More surprising, perhaps, is that all other members of the Politburo are censored on the Chinese Internet.

The following is a summary of all Politburo members and whether they are censored on Baidu, Google and Wikipedia, searching for their names in Chinese or Pinyin, respectively. Censorship on Baidu is marked in yellow and refers to confirmed self-censorship. Censorship on Google and Wikipedia is marked in red and refers to complete blocking of those pages. You can click on either to get more info on the results, or to test again in real time.

The discrepancy in results between Chinese character searches and searches in Pinyin may shed a little light on who is deemed to be a true danger when it comes to censorship.

 

Politburo Standing Committee

Rank名字, Name百度, Baidu谷歌, Google維基百科, Wikipedia
1胡锦涛{{baidu:胡锦涛}}{{google:胡锦涛}}{{zh.wikipedia:胡锦涛}}
 Hu Jintao{{baidu:Hu Jintao}}{{google:Hu Jintao}}{{en.wikipedia:Hu Jintao}}
2吴邦国{{baidu:吴邦国}}{{google:吴邦国}}{{zh.wikipedia:吴邦国}}
 Wu Bangguo{{baidu:Wu Bangguo}}{{google:Wu Bangguo}}{{en.wikipedia:Wu Bangguo}}
3温家宝{{baidu:温家宝}}{{google:温家宝}}{{zh.wikipedia:温家宝}}
 Wen Jiabao{{baidu:Wen Jiabao}}{{google:Wen Jiabao}}{{en.wikipedia:Wen Jiabao}}
4贾庆林{{baidu:贾庆林}}{{google:贾庆林}}{{zh.wikipedia:贾庆林}}
 Jia Qinglin{{baidu:Jia Qinglin}}{{google:Jia Qinglin}}{{en.wikipedia:Jia Qinglin}}
5李长春{{baidu:李长春}}{{google:李长春}}{{zh.wikipedia:李长春}}
 Li Changchun{{baidu:Li Changchun}}{{google:Li Changchun}}{{en.wikipedia:Li Changchun}}
6习近平{{baidu:习近平}}{{google:习近平}}{{zh.wikipedia:习近平}}
 Xi Jinping{{baidu:Xi Jinping}}{{google:Xi Jinping}}{{en.wikipedia:Xi Jinping}}
7李克强{{baidu:李克强}}{{google:李克强}}{{zh.wikipedia:李克强}}
 Li Keqiang{{baidu:Li Keqiang}}{{google:Li Keqiang}}{{en.wikipedia:Li Keqiang}}
8贺国强{{baidu:贺国强}}{{google:贺国强}}{{zh.wikipedia:贺国强}}
 He Guoqiang{{baidu:He Guoqiang}}{{google:He Guoqiang}}{{en.wikipedia:He Guoqiang}}
9周永康{{baidu:周永康}}{{google:周永康}}{{zh.wikipedia:周永康}}
 Zhou Yongkang{{baidu:Zhou Yongkang}}{{google:Zhou Yongkang}}{{zh.wikipedia:Zhou Yongkang}}

Other Politburo Members

名字, Name百度, Baidu谷歌, Google維基百科, Wikipedia
薄熙来{{baidu:薄熙来}}{{google:薄熙来}}{{zh.wikipedia:薄熙来}}
Bo Xilai{{baidu:Bo Xilai}}{{google:Bo Xilai}}{{en.wikipedia:Bo Xilai}}
郭伯雄{{baidu:郭伯雄}}{{google:郭伯雄}}{{zh.wikipedia:郭伯雄}}
Guo Boxiong{{baidu:Guo Boxiong}}{{google:Guo Boxiong}}{{en.wikipedia:Guo Boxiong}}
回良玉{{baidu:回良玉}}{{google:回良玉}}{{zh.wikipedia:回良玉}}
Hui Liangyu{{baidu:Hui Liangyu}}{{google:Hui Liangyu}}{{en.wikipedia:Hui Liangyu}}
李源潮{{baidu:李源潮}}{{google:李源潮}}{{zh.wikipedia:李源潮}}
Li Yuanchao{{baidu:Li Yuanchao}}{{google:Li Yuanchao}}{{en.wikipedia:Li Yuanchao}}
刘淇{{baidu:刘淇}}{{google:刘淇}}{{zh.wikipedia:刘淇}}
Liu Qi{{baidu:Liu Qi}}{{google:Liu Qi}}{{en.wikipedia:Liu_Qi_(politician)}}
刘延东{{baidu:刘延东}}{{google:刘延东}}{{zh.wikipedia:刘延东}}
Liu Yandong{{baidu:Liu Yandong}}{{google:Liu Yandong}}{{en.wikipedia:Liu Yandong}}
刘云山{{baidu:刘云山}}{{google:刘云山}}{{zh.wikipedia:刘云山}}
Liu Yunshan{{baidu:Liu Yunshan}}{{google:Liu Yunshan}}{{en.wikipedia:Liu Yunshan}}
王刚{{baidu:王刚}}{{google:王刚}}{{zh.wikipedia:王刚_(政治人物)}}
Wang Gang{{baidu:Wang Gang}}{{google:Wang Gang}}{{en.wikipedia:Wang_Gang_(politician)}}
王乐泉{{baidu:王乐泉}}{{google:王乐泉}}{{zh.wikipedia:王乐泉}}
Wang Lequan{{baidu:Wang Lequan}}{{google:Wang Lequan}}{{en.wikipedia:Wang Lequan}}
王岐山{{baidu:王岐山}}{{google:王岐山}}{{zh.wikipedia:王岐山}}
Wang Qishan{{baidu:Wang Qishan}}{{google:Wang Qishan}}{{en.wikipedia:Wang Qishan}}
汪洋{{baidu:汪洋}}{{google:汪洋}}{{zh.wikipedia:汪洋}}
Wang Yang{{baidu:Wang Yang}}{{google:Wang Yang}}{{en.wikipedia:Wang_Yang_(politician)}}
王兆国{{baidu:王兆国}}{{google:王兆国}}{{zh.wikipedia:王兆国}}
Wang Zhaoguo{{baidu:Wang Zhaoguo}}{{google:Wang Zhaoguo}}{{en.wikipedia:Wang Zhaoguo}}
徐才厚{{baidu:徐才厚}}{{google:徐才厚}}{{zh.wikipedia:徐才厚}}
Xu Caihou{{baidu:Xu Caihou}}{{google:Xu Caihou}}{{en.wikipedia:Xu Caihou}}
俞正声{{baidu:俞正声}}{{google:俞正声}}{{zh.wikipedia:俞正声}}
Yu Zhengsheng{{baidu:Yu Zhengsheng}}{{google:Yu Zhengsheng}}{{en.wikipedia:Yu Zhengsheng}}
张德江{{baidu:张德江}}{{google:张德江}}{{zh.wikipedia:张德江}}
Zhang Dejiang{{baidu:Zhang Dejiang}}{{google:Zhang Dejiang}}{{en.wikipedia:Zhang Dejiang}}
张高丽{{baidu:张高丽}}{{google:张高丽}}{{zh.wikipedia:张高丽}}
Zhang Gaoli{{baidu:Zhang Gaoli}}{{google:Zhang Gaoli}}{{en.wikipedia:Zhang Gaoli}}

Some results are inconclusive. Here are some possible reasons for this:

  1. There are occasional glitches in the Great Firewall of China. Generally unblocked keywords can sometimes be unaccessible for a range of reasons. Likewise, generally blocked keywords or websites can occassionally be accessible.
  2. A yellow mark for Google or Wikipedia means that the page was very slow to load, not that it was blocked. Foreign websites are generally slow to access from China; some are sometimes or always particilarly slow.
  3. The data may include genuine changes over time. Most of these keywords have only been added to our database for testing recently. But you can click on all of them to view their history and test them again in real time.