By HIXIE XING SOU SOU
Harmony Correspondent
BEIJING (China Daily Show) — China launched “Panguso” last month, a government-sponsored search engine which has quickly become the country’s leading search engine, according to official figures.
The site has reassured Chinese netizens, heartily sick of Western search engine results for China that either portray an overwhelmingly negative image of the motherland, or, as is often the case with Google, no result at all.
Surprising new revelations on Panguso include headlines such as “The benevolent government is thinking of the people” and “There is nothing to see here, all is well” while encouraging users to “Keep playing Happy Farm.”
According to the site’s news updates, China’s people are happy and successful but the government is still working hard on improving that already-glorious situation.
With control over only the nation’s television, newspapers, education system, radio stations and Internet, China’s ruling Communist Party badly needs a new medium to get its message across.
The fresh portal is providing netizens with a new insight into the world of current events.
Xinhua’s Chief Editor Li Congjun praised the site’s efficiency: A quick search for “China” and “politics” on the new search engine yields one result.
“Panguso rapidly searches and checks all news items, parses them for irrelevant information and immediately returns the best result,” Li told an assembled press conference of selected journalists. “No more having to read conflicting news reports or coping with confusing volumes of information.”
He added that the search engine provides interactive features that others lack. “Through Panguso, the public can interact with the government,” said Li. “Those who search for certain terms will be rewarded with a form to fill out, regarding their name, contact details and worst fear. Further searches will be rewarded with a personal visit.”
With the launch of Panguso, even historical injustices are being put right.
Panguso is already changing the way people think about the Chinese government. Most experts, for example, have conservatively estimated that between 20 to 43 million people died between the famine years of 1959 to 1961, largely due to the government’s misguided agricultural policies. But Panguso search results show that the real number is actually far less.
Other, more modern, political myths are also being debunked, says Li. For example, typing in “Tiananmen” and “Tank Man” links directly to a page revealing new evidence showing the alleged “dissident” was almost certainly a shortsighted grandfather mistakenly trying to hail a bus.
“The government shows us news blocked by Western engines like Google,” said Panguso user and middle-school teacher Xin Mashan. “For example, I had no idea that the Party saved all of us from a giant Cloverfield-style incident last two weeks ago, possibly engineered by Japan.”
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