BEIJING — China's biggest Internet search site, Baidu.com, has launched a Chinese-language encyclopedia inspired by the cooperative reference site Wikipedia, which the communist government bars China's Web surfers from seeing.

The service, which debuted in April, carries entries written by users, but warns that it will delete content about sex, terrorism and attacks on the government.

Government censors blocked access last year to Wikipedia, apparently because of concern about its references to Tibet, Taiwan and other topics.

The emergence of Baidu's encyclopedia reflects efforts by Chinese entrepreneurs to take advantage of conditions created by the government's efforts to simultaneously promote and control Internet use.

Baidu calls its site Baike — pronounced "bye kuh" — or "One Hundred Chapters." It says users have written more than 25,000 entries in the past week alone on cooking, the stock market, Chinese tourist sites and other topics. Wikipedia, by comparison, has more than 2.7 million entries.

Baidu said managers weren't immediately available to answer questions about the site. But Chairman Robin Li told The Financial Times newspaper last week that it was inspired by Wikipedia, though he said he hasn't seen the U.S.-based site.

"I certainly hope our encyclopedia will be the most authoritative one for any Chinese users," Li was quoted as saying. "The initial reaction has been very positive, so we are quite confident that we will quickly become the No. 1 in this area."