Blocked on Weibo

维勒 (Friedrich Wöhler or Villar-Perosa machine gun / wéilēi) are two characters often found in phonetic transliterations of Western words and names. For instance, it makes up the last name of the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler (弗里德里希·维勒) as well as part of Colombian golfer Camilo Villegas’ last name (维勒加斯).

Why it is blocked: However, it’s unlikely that the characters are blocked because of either person’s contributions to science or sport (though Villegas was involved in a rather racy—by Chinese standards at least—photo shoot for ESPN Magazine’s ”Body Issue”). More plausibly, it may be because 维勒 represents 维勒·帕洛沙—the Villar-Perosa submachine gun. However, though this would be in keeping with China’s censorship of weapons on Weibo, the Villar-Perosa is almost always referred to by its full name even in Chinese, making it strange to block just 维勒 if the intention was to control references to the weapon (which are few: just two at last count, with one blocked—see the message at the bottom). The gun was never widely used in China or outside of WWI—though innovative, apparently it was a terribly ineffective gun. So the reason for why 维勒 is blocked is obscure.

For fun: The original service manual for how to maintain a Villar-Perosa submachine gun as well as an English promotional brochure for the weapon.

奥克托今 (HMX, aka octogen / àokètuōjīn) is a chemical high explosive, sometimes mixed with TNT. Common nicknames for it include High Melting eXplosive, Her Majesty’s eXplosive, and High-velocity Military eXplosive.

Why it is blocked: According to the History Channel show Weird Warfare, a powder form of the explosive that could be disguised as flour (and even cooked and eaten as a pancake) was developed by the U.S. Chinese guerrillas successfully used it against the Japanese during WWII. As it is a weapon, it has cause to be blocked, but unlike some of the others, the Chinese word for the chemical is so obscure that a search for the first three characters (which are unblocked) and subsequent check of the posts reveals that it has been used 12 times in in the past two years. Of course, it’s possible that censors have deleted all such posts, but a Google or Baidu search for the term doesn’t turn up much outside of chemistry references either. One wonders why the censors even bothered to block such an uncommon term. [Status - 11/22/11, 2/5/12, 3/12/12: blocked]

砍刀 (machete / kǎndāo) is a large cleaver-like cutting tool, frequently used to cut through rain forest undergrowth and for agricultural purposes.

Why it is blocked: Knife and cleaver-wielding men attacking schoolchildren became an unfortunate phenomenon in China in 2010. However, none of these cases specifically involved machetes, so it may simply be a matter of Weibo’s general block of most weapons. [Status - 2/9/11: blocked]

坦克 (tank / tanke) is a transliteration of the English word “tank.” It is an armored vehicle first used in WWI.

Why it is blocked: