Screenshots from Baidu Translate. Illustration: baidu.com

Is Baidu trying to tell us something?

Language learners looking for a little help with their vocabulary could get more than an English lesson from China’s most popular search engine.

On Friday, some of the example sentences appearing on the company’s online translation tool, Baidu Translate, caught the attention of observant Internet users -- who soon began to wonder whether there was more to the search results than meets the eye.

A search for “Taiwan,” for instance, provides a helpful reminder of the self-governing island’s diplomatic isolation (Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province): Should Web users perform a search for "Chiang Kai-shek," the former Chinese leader who moved his Republic of China government to Taiwan in retreat from Mao Zedong’s Communist forces in 1949, they might be surprised to find him described as a "corrupt dictator and historic loser:" The curious descriptions aren't limited to cross-strait relations. As Beijing seeks to tighten controls on foreign non-profit and other non-governmental organizations, a Baidu Translate search for "NGO" yields what may be interpreted by some as a bit of editorial commentary: The mysterious translation algorithm appears to have strong feelings about certain sensitive words: And it is not shy about sharing its thoughts on the U.S. or current affairs: The translation tool search results aren’t the first time that Baidu has veered into political territory. In 2012, as China was gripped by anti-Japanese protests amid a territorial row with Tokyo, the Chinese web giant tweaked its search page to show a drawing of the disputed islands with a large Chinese flag on top. Asked how Baidu Translate generates search results, Kaiser Kuo, Baidu’s director of international communications, said that the search tool was machine-powered. “The example sentences provided on Baidu Translate aren't selected by hand, as it were; that would be an impossibly large editorial task. They're drawn automatically from around the Web, often from translation-focused websites (and credited with links below the example sentences),” Mr. Kuo told China Real Time via e-mail. At least the site appears to have a sense of humor: --Felicia Sonmez. Follow her on Twitter @feliciasonmez.

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