Verisign and PIR issue statements about the China license problem

Last week a Chinese registrar (eName) announced that they suspended new domain name registrations for .org, .asia, .cc and .tv extensions because of a new regulation of the Chinese government. This was the first we heard about this new ban.

The new regulation does not permit Chinese registrars to allow new domain name registrations but it does allow renewals and other domain name related functions.

This week Verisign (the .tv and .cc registry) and PIR (the .org registry) issued statements to inform of the new developments.

This is what Verisign said today:

“Verisign obtained licenses to provide domain name registry services for .com and .net in China in July 2016. As such, .com and .net domain name registrations are not affected.

Verisign is engaged in discussions with the Chinese government to obtain licenses to provide domain name registry services for .cc, .tv and our Chinese IDNs. We submitted our updated applications in July 2017. We expect to begin to engage in discussions with the Chinese government about our final evaluation and ultimately obtain licenses for .cc, .tv and our IDNs.

We will continue to distribute our products through the existing group of licensed registrars, which continue to process new .cc and .tv registrations: HiChina, Bizcn, Chinasource and 35 Tech. Renewals of existing .cc and .tv domain name registrations are not affected and will follow the standard renewal process. We view obtaining a license for our Chinese IDNs as a prerequisite to their launch.”

And this is the Public Interest Registry (PIR) announcement said:

“As you may have heard, over the past week there have been some regulatory actions taken in China with regards to the availability of certain top-level domains, including a directive spelling out which names would be available for registration going forward. My colleagues and I have read through the directive, and we are studying it to understand what this will mean for the ongoing registration of new .org domains, and the re-registration of .org domains in China.

We are speaking with key contacts in China to get clarification, and I wanted to share with you what we have learned so far.

Our most careful read of the Directive is that it is clearly aimed at registrars established within the People’s Republic of China, and thus does not apply to registrars that are located outside of the physical boundaries of China.  For that reason, registrars who do not have operations in China should continue selling to all registrants.

Our understanding is that .org sites should continue to resolve for users in China. If our information is correct, customers with .org domains should see no change in accessibility for users in China.

We will issue updates as we learn more.”