Serving Web Content in China

China’s Internet is heavily regulated which can cause issues for websites hoping to make their content available to Chinese visitors. The MIIT (Ministry of Information and Industry Technology) creates the internet regulations in China and manages what is typically called the “Great Firewall of China”, which helps regulate content crossing China’s internet border.

It is possible to acquire an ICP (Internet Content Provider) license from MIIT which permits a specific domain to be accessible inside of China. While ICP licenses are not required to display content in China, they help ensure that content is considered trustworthy and that content is consistently available to Chinese users. However, ICP permits have several strict requirements, including the domain being registered in China, a Chinese origin server IP, and suitable content. 

China’s content restrictions are continually updated and subject to change. WP Engine cannot advise on the suitability of website content or its compliance with China’s regulations.

WP Engine does not offer servers in China from which to provide a Chinese origin server IP and has no current plans to acquire an ICP license.

Attempts to make content available in China without an ICP can work with any non-Chinese host (such as WP Engine), however this comes with significant risk:

• The domain could be blocked by the Great Firewall of China, due to non-compliance with local regulations.
• The IP could be blocked by the Great Firewall of China, due to non-compliance with local regulations of any domain on that IP.
• As the site will be hosted outside of China, latency may be increased when web data crosses the Great Firewall, which will negatively impact web performance.

As a result of the content and regulatory restrictions for serving websites in China, WP Engine cannot guarantee that content hosted on our platform will be accessible in China. We have measures in place should a blockage happen to resolve the issue, but the issue itself is not preventable and remediation for blockage may require a DNS change.

Users with the Global Edge Security add-on can have changes made to their network which may help facilitate serving traffic to China if content has been blocked. This may require a DNS update. Reach out to your Account Manager for details and additional risks.