China to Regulate Chinese Domain Name Registration

Ministry of Information Industry has lately issued a "Notice on Chinese Domain Name Management" in order to further improve the Chinese domain name system, standardize Chinese domain name registration service, and thereby realizing the healthy development of Internet and maintaining the rights and interests of Internet users.

A 'Domain Name' is a name by which a company or organization is known on the internet, corresponding to Internet's IP. It is the key step of users' access to the Internet. The Chinese domain name refers to the one written in Chinese character and ended up with "cn", "org" or "net", an important part in the forming of the Chinese domain name system.

To vigorously push forward the development of information resources on the Chinese network, popularize the use of Internet and speed up the application of Chinese domain name, CNNIC launched the testing system for the registration of Chinese domain names and started the registration service in the early days of this year.

According to the notice, the registration system of Chinese domain names consists of three parts, namely registration management, registration service and agency. The management is in charge of administration and maintenance of domain name registration and central databank; the service unit responsible for receiving application and performing domain name registration while the agency can only accept and provide domain name registration as authorized by the registration management.

The CNNIC, as approved by the Ministry of Information Industry, is a management unit in charge of the Chinese domain name registration.

Those, as regulated in the notice, who are going to deal with Chinese domain name registration service or provide acting service in China shall have to be ratified by the Ministry of Information Industry. And no organization or individual shall be allowed to engage in registration management, service or acting activity of Chinese domain names without authorization.





People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/