New .CN registrations are temporarily suspended, while the Chinese hostmaster CNNIC is evaluating different options regarding how to validate registration information from international Registrants. You can still order .CN domains, however the registration time cannot be confirmed at present.

In a move to clamp down hackers and illegal sites China has introduced a documentation request for future .CN registrations, so any registrant has to show a business certificate. Already more than 15 million .CN domains have been registered in the past without documentation, so critics state that the new regulation is long overdue. Normally, a country hostmaster introduces a restriction policy when launching their top level domain, and then later gradually remove them, however in the case of China it is the other way around. We have also recently seen it for .RU domains, where the registry now demands a copy of the registrant business certificate for future and past .RU registrations. Christopher Hofman from European Domain Centre comments that "Restrictions are important in an introductory phase, in order to ensure that entities with special rights (trademarks etc.) obtain their domains. However it makes no sense to do it the other way around. There must be other alternatives to increase Internet security than requiring this documentation."

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