China To Launch State-owned Wikipedia Rival Next Year

China is a country that tends to promote its own technology and craft. The country has its own Facebook and Twitter as both social networks are banned.

Now, the Asian giant is about to take another huge step. It wants to build its own version of Wikipedia which will launch next year. According to reports, more than 20,000 people had been engaged to work on the project. It will feature 300,000 entries at about 1,000 words.

The China Wikipedia will be created by selected scholars from state-run universities and it will not be available for volunteers to edit.

Yang Muzhi, the editor-in-chief of the project said: “The Encyclopaedia of China is not a book, but a Great Wall of culture.”

He added that China was persuaded to produce its own Wikipedia to guide the public and society because of international pressure. The Encyclopaedia of China was first published in 1993, in hardcopy format and released a second edition was published in 2012.

Wikipedia is available in China, but some of its contents are blocked.