Note: China Halts Overseas Registrars from Registering .CN Domains
Registrar notes that overseas registrars are restricted from registering .cn domains.
As stated by a note at RRPproxy, .Cn registry CNNIC has temporarily halted overseas registrars from registering .cn domain names on behalf of registrants. The move comes following CNNIC cracked down on registrations last month to clean up the .cn namespace.
The notice states overseas registrars won’t be able to register .CN domains “starting with January 6, 2010, 18:00 PM (Beijing Time). The registration stop is planned to be temporarily. As stated by the Chinese registry, difficulties in handling the comprehensive fresh application material are the reason for this drastic development. The fresh application material is required since the middle of December 2009, when CNNIC suddenly changed its registration policies.”
The RRPproxy note also notes that China has added other restrictions:
1. Since January 1st, 2010, China domestic registrants are no longer allowed to register a .CN domain via an oversea registrar.
2. If any registrant’s business license or personal ID are not in Chinese or English, he has to file in a notarized English translation of these documents for domain name application starting with January 15th, 2010, 9:00 AM (Beijing Time).
I guess this prediction that GoDaddy would benefit from CNNIC’s crackdown may not come to fruition since the firm will now need to cease offering .cn domain names. As of the time of writing, .cn domains are still listed as an option at GoDaddy. [Update: Go Daddy Sr. Director, Domain Registration Services, Rich Merdinger, informed me that the registrar received notice from NeuStar this morning regarding the changes. It later received notice from CNNIC. It has removed .cn as a fresh registration option.]
