I’ve been through the domain name registrations in China, in addition to the full documentation to be submitted to the Chinese authorities in order to not have the .cn account suspended.

However, now things have become interesting – registering domain names through non-Chinese registration authorities has been suspended since mid December:

We've disabled the registration of new domains for the moment. CNNIC
changed their rules regarding registration of new domains. Now, they
allow registration just for Chinese companies. Until they clear up
their policies, we've disabled the new domains registration.

That’s what most registrars are coming back with at the moment. However, GoDaddy has suddenly decided that now – 24 March 2010 – they won’t register domains for Civil rights reasons, amongst others. The Washington Post reports it as follows:

GoDaddy’s move follows Google’s announcement Monday that it will no longer censor search results on its site in China. Analysts and human rights advocates have warned that China’s insistence on censorship and control over information is becoming a serious barrier to trade.

[…]

Jones said GoDaddy’s decision to stop registering new domains was unrelated to Google’s recent decision.

“With all due respect, this has nothing to do with Google,” she said. She added that the company had been deliberating what it would do about its business in China before Google’s announcement.

Said Jones, “We decided we didn’t want to be agents of China.”

Not that this should be such a big announcement; I see this as more of a natural reaction in the progression of the network consolidation in China, and all the interational ramifications that has brought with it.

Also, this applies to new registration only, for domains that have not complied with Chinese regulations…

Sigh… so registering Chinese domains isn’t so easy any more – making .cn registrations kinda challenging… Chinese companies like 1997 still provide the domain registrations – but there are a whack more…