Published by ChinaMNC · Qianjin

Website Identity Labels for Government Sites in China: What Foreign Founders Should Know

A practical look at China's website identity label system, using a Heilongjiang provincial government portal record as an example of how certification, validity periods and inspections are documented.

Why website identity labels matter to foreign founders

Foreign founders setting up or running a company in China quickly encounter the country's layered system of website registration and identity marking. One visible piece of that system is the electronic identity label (电子标识) issued to institutional websites. A published record for a provincial government portal offers a useful case study of how these labels are structured, what they certify and how long they last. The example below concerns the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Government portal, but the record format is what matters most for founders who need to understand how Chinese online identity documentation is presented.

Who issues and supervises the labels

The source record identifies the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工业和信息化部) as the supervising authority for the label management scheme, with the Internet Society of China (中国互联网协会) named as the issuing body. For foreign founders, this division is worth noting: the policy oversight sits with a central ministry, while the operational issuance is handled by an industry association. When you see a label displayed on a Chinese website, these are the two institutional names behind it.

The institution behind the example

The record describes the website holder as a party and government organ (党政机关), specifically the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Government. Its site is listed at www.hlj.gov.cn, and the electronic label carries the identifier DZJG20260300003507PW. Founders should understand that this particular label type applies to institutional and government sites, not to ordinary commercial companies. A private company registering a domain in China will deal with a different set of filing and labelling requirements, but the structure of validity periods, evaluations and inspections shown here illustrates the general logic of the system.

Validity periods and certification windows

The record states that both the PC website label and the WAP (mobile) website label carry a validity period of two years. For this example, the certification runs from 5 March 2026 to 4 March 2028. The same two-year window applies to the certificate certification. Two practical takeaways emerge for founders:

• Labels are time-limited. Certification is not permanent, and the record explicitly shows a start and end date.
• PC and mobile are tracked separately. The source lists distinct label certifications for the PC site and the WAP site, even when the dates coincide. If your business operates both a desktop and a mobile web presence, expect each to be documented.

Periodic inspections

Beyond the initial certification, the record lists scheduled inspections (定期巡检) at roughly six-month intervals: 4 September 2026, 4 March 2027 and 4 September 2027. Each is marked as passed (通过). This shows that holding a label involves ongoing compliance checks during the validity period, not a one-off approval. Foreign founders should build periodic review into their China web operations calendar rather than treating registration as a single event.

Evaluation scores in the record

The published record also includes evaluation results, which give a sense of how these labels are assessed. The overall evaluation score is 85.8 for both the PC and WAP sites. The breakdown is as follows:

PC website evaluation

• Elderly-friendly accessibility (适老化): self-evaluation 100, institutional evaluation 82, user evaluation 80.
• Barrier-free accessibility (无障碍): self-evaluation 100, institutional evaluation 83, user evaluation 84.
• Effectiveness index (效能指数): comprehensiveness 100%, reliability 100%, robustness 100%.

WAP website evaluation

• Elderly-friendly accessibility: self-evaluation 100, institutional evaluation 83, user evaluation 83.
• Barrier-free accessibility: self-evaluation 100, institutional evaluation 80, user evaluation 83.
• Effectiveness index: comprehensiveness 100%, reliability 100%, robustness 100%.

These figures are specific to this government portal and should not be read as benchmarks for commercial sites. Still, the categories are instructive. Chinese website evaluations can cover accessibility for elderly and disabled users alongside technical reliability measures. Founders building consumer-facing sites may find that accessibility and robustness are treated as part of the quality framework, not optional extras.

Certificates and downloadable reports

The record notes that a certificate can be downloaded, specifically an accessibility and barrier-free evaluation report for the Heilongjiang provincial government portal, marked as a sealed version (用印版). For founders, the lesson is that certification often comes with documentary evidence that can be retrieved and verified. Keep copies of any certificates or reports associated with your own Chinese web properties, and check that the issuing body and validity dates are visible.

What foreign founders should take away

This record is a government example, but it demonstrates the anatomy of a Chinese website identity label: a supervising ministry, an issuing association, a unique label number, a fixed validity period, scheduled inspections with pass results, published evaluation scores and downloadable certificates. When you register or operate a website in China, expect a comparable emphasis on documented status and periodic review. Verify the issuer, note the expiry date and plan for inspections. For company-specific filing obligations, consult a qualified local adviser, since the requirements for commercial entities differ from those shown for government portals.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.