| e-Commerce Laws in China and Hong Kong: Integration or Separation? |
| Domain Name Registration Domain names are organizational entities' official representatives on the Internet. Therefore, their governance and protection are very important. Both regions follow similar registration procedures. However, China has exercised more control over the creation/termination of domain name as long as the state organ found it necessary. And the occurrence of domain name disputes involving renowned international corporations in China is more frequent than in Hong Kong. China The China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) oversees the registration and administration of domain names (Lovelock, 1999) according to the June 1997 Administration of the Registration of Domain Names for the Chinese Internet, Procedures, and the Implementing Rules. Since October 1999, companies have been able to apply for either a dot.com or a dot.cn registration. Due to the popularity of dot.com domain names, several government agencies - such as China-Channel.com, Eastern Communications, and XinNet Corporation, all of which are members of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - also added to the list to offer registrations. Registration of domain names is handled on first-come-first-served basis and should be based on pinyin romanization system of Chinese characters. CNNIC began accepting applications for Chinese character domain names in January 2000. Applicants for a Chinese character domain name must already have a pinyin domain name. According to the report in China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the total number of registered domain names under the country code of "CN" reached 126,146 by June 30, 2002 (see Appendix 3). To obtain a domain name in China, applicants must meet the following requirements (Kennedy, 2000):
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