Why have the regulations for .cn domain name registrations been restricted?

In December 2009, MIIT declared to take action against illegal activity, in particular the distribution of pornography to mobile phone internet users under .cn domain names.

The announcement followed a critical TV report in Chinese Central Television CCTV on December 9, where the lack of control mechanisms for registration of .cn domain names was criticized. The TV station linked the fake registrant details for a large number of .cn domain names to websites showing pornographic content.

As the registration process, despite the requirement to use correct registrant contact data, was completely automated and no evidence of correct registrant data were required nor audited, Chinese authorities had limited means to prosecute those registrants using fake registrant data, and the TV station therefore argued that there was a need to clear the registrant data of .cn domain names.

Shortly after, MIIT explains its decision to increase the activities against pornography on the internet. In addition to the new strict registration requirements, MIIT invested in an intense audit to investigate for correct registrant data and for illegal content on existing .cn websites. These audits have led to the deletion of millions of .cn domain names and websites. As a result the number of registered .cn domain names has declined from 13.5 million in December 2009 to only 8.25 million in late April 2010.

New TLD name for “.中國” expected to launch in August 2010

Domain names consist of maximum 63 characters including the letters A-Z, numbers 0-9, and the “-”. In some generic top level domains and in some country code top level domains, local – or “internationalized” so called “IDN” – characters have been allowed as well. For example, while coca-cola.com is a standard domain name, 可口可樂.com is an example of an IDN domain name.

So far, the IDN Domain Names have been limited to the “second level” (in this case “可口可樂”) and the top level, (in this case “.com”) would have to be in Latin script.

This is now changing.

In October 2009 ICANN, the non-profit organization governing the domain name system, approved the introduction of so called “internationalized country code top level domains” (IDN ccTLDs). This decision was a major turning point in the history of the internet, as for the first time domain names in other scripts than Latin are becoming available later this year.

In a world where more than half of the global internet users speak languages using scripts other than Latin, this new technology enabling top level domain names in scripts such as Chinese, Cyrillic, Arabic, etc. will eventually make the internet easily accessible to all people.

Alongside other countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand, China has applied for a country code top level domain name in its own script: “.中國” meaning “.china.”

What is the status of .中國 (.china) ?

On June 25, the .china application passed the last phase of ICANN’s evaluation and is expected to be launched already in August this year..

What will happen when .中國 is launched?

There is little doubt that Chinese authorities are doing all they can to promote the new .中國 top level domain name. According to CNNIC, the new .中國 top level domain will make it easier for those one billion Chinese citizens who are currently not using the internet to access the internet as they will not have to be able to master Latin characters and key boards. In addition, the new .中國 top level domain will enable Chinese people to use email addresses in Chinese script; generally, the new .china top level domain is expected to support and promote Chinese content on Chinese websites. Thus, Chinese authorities hope that the new top level domain can help bridge the gap between the modern East of China and the more rural West of China, where far fewer people have access to the internet.

All Chinese public websites and email addresses are expected to be using the new .中國 domain, which will support the launch and the success of the new .china TLD.

For international businesses small and large, the new .china TLD will be a cheap and efficient way to reach the Chinese consumers in their own language.