军阀 (warlord / jūnfá) is a person who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. Chinese history is replete with cases of warlords fomenting rebellion (or valiantly defending their territory, depending on your point of view), in particular during the Three Kingdoms era and the period from the end of the Qing Dynasty to reunification in 1928, known as the Warlord Era.
Why it is blocked: This is another case of a non-contemporary word seemingly being unnecessarily blocked. China did reach one of its weakest points during the terrible infighting during the Warlord Era, and Chiang Kai-shek’s defeat of the warlords is often credited to the KMT and not to the Chinese Communist Party, which contributed troops and resources while allied with the KMT as the First United Front. But the block is probably due to netizens comparing their corrupt and abusive local leaders to warlords. [Status - 11/13/11: blocked; 2/5/12: blocked].
