Chinese ban on Wikipedia prevents research

Chinese students and intellectuals are expressing outrage at Beijing's decision to prohibit access to Wikipedia, the fast-growing on-line encyclopedia that has become a basic resource for many in China.

Wikipedia, which offers more than 2.2 million articles in 100 languages, has emerged as an important source of scholarly knowledge in China and many other countries. But its stubborn neutrality and independence on political issues such as Tibet and Taiwan has repeatedly drawn the wrath of the Communist authorities.

The latest blocking of the website, the third shutdown of the site in China in the past two years, has now continued for more than 10 weeks without any explanation and without any indication whether the ban is temporary or permanent.

Chinese authorities twice blocked the Wikipedia website for several weeks in 2004, apparently because it included articles on banned subjects such as the Taiwanese independence movement, the Tibetan autonomy issue and the Tiananmen Square student protests that were crushed by the Chinese military in 1989.