China Internet Network Information Center - China

The China Internet Network Information Center or CNNIC, was founded as a non-profit organization on June 3, 1997.

CNNIC is the administrative agency responsible for Internet affairs under the Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China. It is based in the Zhongguancun high tech district of Beijing.

CNNIC is responsible for operating and administering China's domain name registry. CNNIC manages both the ".CN" country code top level domain and the Chinese Domain Name system (Internationalized domain names that containChinese characters).

As of January 2009, CNNIC only opens the CN domain to registered businesses, requires supporting documentations for domain registration such as business license or personal ID, and suspended overseas registrars even for domestic registrants. CNNIC denies that it mandates existing personal domain names to be transferred to businesses. Trend Micro suggests this move is still not enough to stop modern security threats from the .cn domain.