Regardless of content languages, any operational website hosted on servers physically located within mainland China is required by law to be registered under legally accountable Real Name at the ICP Filing System of Ministry of Information Industry. Non-operational websites such as governmental sites and sites of registered non-profit organizations are absolved of this requirement.
Before they are approved to go live and serve publicly, all websites will be scrutinized manually in thorough inspection for legality and ethics. Upon receiving official acknowledgement of the content or service provided, the site owner will be granted an ICP (Internet Content Provider) Certificate specific to the site indicating the government acceptance of it. The site in addition to all related information including that of the owner individual or corporate will be filed in official records and examined while by while.
Whether or not the site comes with a registered domain name doesn’t affect the applicability. As long as it is physically hosted in mainland China, even if running on a bare IP address, it is mandatory to be approved in regards to the ICP certification.
Any entity who provides online public information service without an ICP Certificate will find them in violation of law and be held responsible for subsequent legal consequences. In light of this, almost all websites in P.R.China are linking back to the filing system of MII (Ministry of Information Industry), resulting in one of the most linked websites of the entire world.
