Published by ChinaMNC · Xinxing

China Website Identity Labels: What Foreign Founders Should Know About the Heilongjiang Government Portal's Certification Record

A practical look at China's website identity label (标识) system, using the Heilongjiang Provincial Government portal's published certification data to explain validity periods, inspections, and accessibility scoring for foreign founders operating websites in China.

Why a Government Website's Label Record Matters to Foreign Founders

Foreign founders setting up or running a company in China quickly discover that websites and mobile sites are subject to a formal identity label (标识) regime. The published record for the Heilongjiang Provincial Government portal offers a concrete, publicly documented example of how that regime looks in practice — including who issues labels, how long they last, and what periodic checks apply. Understanding these mechanics helps founders plan compliance for their own corporate sites.

Who Issues and Oversees Website Identity Labels

The source record sets out a clear institutional structure that applies to labeled sites:

• Supervising authority: the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工业和信息化部).
• Issuing body: the Internet Society of China (中国互联网协会).
• Operator of the labeled site in this case: the Heilongjiang Provincial Government, listed as a Party and government organ, with the site hosted at www.hlj.gov.cn.
• Electronic label number: DZJG20260300003507PW.

For founders, the takeaway is structural: label administration sits with the industry ministry, while issuance is handled by an industry association. When you evaluate a Chinese website — your own, a partner's, or a vendor's — the label number and issuing body are the first things to verify.

Certification Validity: Two-Year Cycles

Both the PC website label and the WAP (mobile) website label in this record share the same certification window: a two-year validity period running from 5 March 2026 to 4 March 2028. The certificate certification carries an identical two-year term.

Practical implications for foreign founders:

• Label certification is time-limited, not permanent. Budget for renewal cycles rather than treating certification as a one-off task.
• PC and mobile versions are certified separately, even when the dates happen to align. A company operating both a desktop site and a mobile site should expect two distinct label records.
• Expiry dates should be tracked alongside other corporate compliance calendars, such as annual reporting and licence renewals.

Scheduled Inspections During the Validity Period

The record lists periodic inspections (定期巡检) at roughly six-month intervals during the certification term: 4 September 2026, 4 March 2027, and 4 September 2027. Each listed inspection shows a result of “passed” (通过).

This shows that holding a label is not a passive status. Certified sites are subject to recurring checks across their validity period. Founders should therefore keep site content, technical performance, and accessibility features maintained continuously, because a mid-term inspection can surface problems well before renewal comes up.

How the Evaluation Scores Are Structured

The record publishes a detailed scoring framework, which is useful for understanding what Chinese authorities and evaluators actually measure. For both the PC and WAP sites, the assessment is divided into two blocks:

Accessibility for older users (适老化评价)

• PC site: self-assessment 100, institutional assessment 82, user assessment 80.
• WAP site: self-assessment 100, institutional assessment 83, user assessment 83.

Accessibility (无障碍评价)

• PC site: self-assessment 100, institutional assessment 83, user assessment 84.
• WAP site: self-assessment 100, institutional assessment 80, user assessment 83.

Performance index (效能指数)

Across both PC and WAP sites, the performance index shows comprehensiveness at 100%, reliability at 100%, and robustness at 100%. The overall evaluation score is 85.8 for the PC site and 85.8 for the WAP site.

Two observations are worth flagging. First, self-assessment scores (100 across the board) are consistently higher than institutional and user scores, so third-party evaluation carries real weight. Second, the performance index dimensions — comprehensiveness, reliability, robustness — are technical quality measures, not marketing measures. Founders should read them as signals that site stability and completeness are part of how Chinese website quality is judged.

Accessibility as a Design Requirement, Not an Extra

The presence of dedicated older-user accessibility and general accessibility categories, each scored separately by the operator, institutions, and users, indicates that accessibility is embedded in the evaluation model rather than treated as optional. The record also references a downloadable certified report on older-user and accessibility evaluation for the portal (a sealed PDF version).

For foreign founders building a China-facing website, this suggests allocating design and development effort to accessibility features early — font scaling, contrast, navigation clarity, and assistive-technology compatibility — rather than retrofitting them after an evaluation flags gaps.

A Practical Checklist for Foreign Founders

• Identify the label status of any Chinese site you rely on, and note the electronic label number and issuing body.
• Map your certification dates for both PC and mobile properties and set renewal reminders ahead of the two-year expiry.
• Prepare for periodic inspections by maintaining site performance and content quality throughout the term.
• Treat accessibility and older-user usability as scored criteria in site design and testing.
• Track technical quality metrics such as comprehensiveness, reliability, and robustness as part of routine site operations.
• Keep documentation such as evaluation reports on file, since certified reports may be required or referenced in reviews.

What This Record Does and Does Not Tell You

This is a single published record for one government portal. It documents the label framework, validity periods, inspection schedule, and scoring structure, but it does not establish requirements for private companies, nor does it guarantee outcomes for any particular site. Founders should use it as an illustration of how China's website label system is organized and what kinds of evaluation dimensions appear in practice, then confirm the specific obligations that apply to their own corporate websites through the relevant authorities or qualified local advisers.

For foreign founders, the broader lesson is that operating a company in China involves attention to website identity labeling, renewal timing, inspection readiness, and accessibility design — administrative details that are easy to overlook during market entry but straightforward to plan for once understood.

Need support? Foreign founders can contact ChinaMNC on WhatsApp / WeChat at +86 153 1898 8535 for help registering and operating a company in China.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.