The spokesperson for the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) announced yesterday (February 2) that the country has no intention of creating its own DNS server system, and that the information regarding a separation from ICANN reported by the People’s Daily Online was simply a misunderstanding.
Previously, the People’s Daily Online reported that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China stated it had successfully developed a new top-level domain system based on a version of Chinese characters, intending to replace the top-level domains: “.com” and “.net”.
However, according to CNNIC, the misunderstanding arose from the overly enthusiastic reporting by the People’s Daily Online (English version). CNNIC also noted that the country already has Chinese-language domains under the top-level domains regulated by ICANN – “.cn”, and that the changes being made are merely additions of Chinese domains: “.mil”, “.gov”, etc., under the “.cn” category.
Analysts believe that the Western media has exaggerated this issue, which is not surprising. Since the Bush administration gained control over ICANN in a dispute last year, there have been many suspicions regarding the separation of some countries from the global internet system.
