Translation Services in China: A New Study Reveals Widespread Censorship, Particularly on Religion and Politics

A recent study discovered that leading translation services and software in mainland China automatically filter out sensitive information identified by the Chinese communist authorities, omitting specific sentences based on their content.

The four Chinese companies involved are Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Youdao. Microsoft’s Bing Translator is the sole foreign company authorized for use in China.

After examining the translation services provided by the aforementioned companies, researchers identified 11,634 censorship rules designed to target sensitive content.

The report emphasized, “The censorship implemented by these translation services primarily focuses on political and religious expression that contradicts the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party. Surprisingly, there was a notable absence of censorship related to pornography or eroticism, indicating that the censors may not have anticipated their rules being closely studied or are no longer concerned with concealing the political motives behind the censorship.”

According to the Citizen Lab report, these automated translation review rules specifically target and may partially or completely exclude the content users wish to translate.

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The study indicated that, aside from Alibaba, several other companies silently implement censorship without notifying the user. Once triggered, the translation services automatically omit sensitive sentences or lines without any alert.

Out of the services examined, Alibaba had the most stringent censorship policies, followed by Youdao and Tencent. Baidu and Bing were found to have fewer censorship rules, as per the research.

The researchers emphasized in the report, “Our findings depict the unfortunate reality that, despite users in China having unrestricted access to news or communication platforms, their reading or writing could still be controlled by automated censorship if they require translation between languages.”

The study revealed that nearly all censorship rules were applicable to simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, English, or a combination of these languages. However, censorship mainly targeted translations from foreign languages to Chinese rather than the other way around.

Chen Shih-min, an associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, mentioned to The Epoch Times on July 31 that the censorship of online translation services by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), particularly when translating from other languages to Chinese, is due to its concern about Chinese citizens gaining insight into the truth about China through foreign information.

Chen expressed his lack of surprise by the recent discoveries in the report, stating, “For a totalitarian and authoritarian regime like the CCP, it strives to shape the narrative in China by controlling media and speech to fabricate a false image of prosperity.”

Censorship on Religion and Politics

The report identified that most censored religious content pertained to Falun Gong, including references like 法轮大法 (Falun Dafa) or ‘f a l u  n d a f a’ (Falun Dafa in fullwidth characters). Microsoft’s Bing heavily censored Falun Gong-related content, including coded references such as 功轮法 (Gong Lunfa [Falun Gong backward]) and 发伦功 [a homonym of Falun Gong in Chinese].

The report also highlighted that various mentions of Falun Gong-affiliated news outlets were censored, including 大纪元 (The Epoch Times) and NTDTV + 新唐人电视台 (NTDTV + NTDTV).

Moreover, the censorship rules targeted content and words related to “dissidents,” “party-state leaders,” criticisms of the Chinese government or the CCP, and specifically, Tiananmen referring to the democracy movement and the Tiananmen massacre on June 4, 1989.

Wu Se-chih, a researcher at the Cross-Strait Policy Association in Taiwan, expressed to The Epoch Times on July 31 that the robust censorship on religion reflects the CCP’s lack of confidence in its governing system. “It fears that granting individuals religious freedom would jeopardize its absolute interests. In essence, in the autocratic and totalitarian CCP system, when leaders aim to deify themselves, religious freedom would impede them from solidifying their authoritarian rule,” Wu stated.

Chen explained, “As the CCP is an atheistic regime, it is apprehensive that Falun Gong, promoting truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, could challenge its indoctrination of the Chinese populace and undermine the CCP’s ruling authority.”

He added that following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in recent years, the Chinese economy has displayed signs of continuous deterioration, putting the legitimacy of the CCP, particularly Xi Jinping’s leadership, at risk. “This diminishes the CCP’s authority, especially when media outlets like The Epoch Times report truthfully on the realities of the CCP and related news. Naturally, these outlets must be censored to prevent the Chinese population from learning the truth,” Chen concluded.

Considering the severe censorship in communist China, Wu expressed confidence that “ordinary Chinese individuals can utilize various methods or software to bypass the CCP’s restrictions and utilize foreign translation services or software from democratic nations to access legitimate information.”

Luo Ya contributed to this report.