Checklist for China-facing Website Production – Alibaba Cloud

Published July 23, 2026

This note is for members who handle consultations and production for China-facing websites. Based on producing a China-facing site, placing static files on Alibaba Cloud OSS, and delivering them through a CDN, it summarizes where similar projects tend to stall and the order in which to check them.

The individual settings were not especially difficult. Still, delivery region, operating entity, account, domain, ICP filing, third-party services, browsers, and similar items each need to be checked one by one. On ordinary domestic projects these often move forward without much attention.

Once the server region is decided, the required filings change. The accounts and documents to prepare also change depending on who files. Connection checks from mainland China and verification across multiple browsers are added as well, so work concentrates just before launch if you do not prepare.

※ This article is a technical summary for production and implementation. It is not legal advice on Chinese regulations. Confirm actual filings and business decisions with the client, Alibaba Cloud, and local specialists as needed.

What to confirm first

Confirm the following before contracting a server or CDN.

Whether the main audience is in mainland China
Whether delivery from mainland China servers or CDN is required
Whether the website operator meets the ICP filing requirements and can prepare the required documents
Who manages the domain registrant, DNS, and Alibaba Cloud account
Which third-party services and browsers will be used from mainland China
Who handles on-the-ground display verification
Whether the launch schedule can cover filing and verification

That said, "showing the site to users in China" and "delivering from servers in mainland China" are not the same. Audience region and delivery region need to be considered separately.

When delivering from mainland China, the first branch is whether an eligible ICP filing entity and the required documents are available. If they are not, do not proceed on the assumption of using servers or CDN delivery that includes mainland China. Consider delivery from outside mainland China, such as Hong Kong.

Delivery region and ICP filing

According to Alibaba Cloud's official information, ICP filing is required when publishing a website on servers in mainland China. When using Alibaba Cloud resources outside mainland China, ICP filing through Alibaba Cloud is not required. When the CDN delivery region includes mainland China or Global, the delivery domain also needs ICP filing.

Delivery condition	Current handling
Servers in mainland China	ICP filing required before launch
Servers outside mainland China	ICP filing through Alibaba Cloud not required
CDN covering mainland China or Global	ICP filing required for the delivery domain

ICP filing checks the operating entity, the website, and server and connection information. It is not something the development side can file after finishing server setup alone. Operating entity, responsible person, domain owner, required documents, and who applies need to be decided with the client in advance. You cannot publish from mainland China servers before approval. After launch, procedures such as displaying the ICP number and public security registration are also guided.

Alibaba Cloud's guidance for overseas enterprises states that a branch registered in mainland China can use its registration documents. Without such a branch, a Registration Certificate of Permanent Representative Office of Foreign Enterprises is required. Requirements vary by region, so confirm them at the start of the project.

Alibaba Cloud has a China site at aliyun.com and an international site at alibabacloud.com. The general ICP filing steps updated in June 2026 state that a China-site account is required and that applications cannot be submitted from an international-site account. On the other hand, the overseas-enterprise page updated in February 2025 still says an international-site account can submit an application from a PC. Because the official guidance is inconsistent, prepare on the assumption that a China-site account is needed and confirm the process for the filing entity with Alibaba Cloud at the start of the project. The application interface and app are available only in Chinese.

Domain and DNS

The website's operating entity should own the domain rather than a temporary production-side account. Confirm the registrant, registrar, account that manages DNS, and email address that receives renewal notices.

For ICP filing in mainland China, complete domain registration and identity verification first, then confirm that the registrant information matches the ICP filing entity. Some regions allow exceptions, but different names may require additional documents or changes.

What matters here is not whether the domain was registered with Alibaba Cloud. Confirm that the top-level domain is included in the system published by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and that the registrar is licensed by a Chinese telecommunications authority. The registrar used by the Alibaba Cloud international site is outside mainland China, so a domain registered there cannot be used for ICP filing as-is. It must be transferred to a licensed registrar in mainland China and pass identity verification. A domain registered elsewhere can still be filed with Alibaba Cloud as the access provider if it meets these conditions and its registrant information matches the ICP filing entity.

DNS configuration and ICP filing are separate tasks. DNS records can be configured before filing, but a website pointing to a server in mainland China cannot be launched until ICP filing is complete. Confirm the following together at launch.

Whether to use www and which URL is canonical
The account and person who can change DNS
The CNAME pointing to the CDN and the origin configuration
HTTPS certificate issuance and domain validation
The TTL before cutover and how to roll back if problems occur
Expiration dates and notification recipients for the domain and certificate

OSS and CDN

In a previous project we placed static files on OSS and used a CDN. Uploading and delivery setup themselves were not that hard, but the following decisions still needed to be checked one by one inside unfamiliar documentation.

Bucket and CDN regions
Where to set the custom domain
CDN origin and delivery region
HTTPS certificate setup and who renews it
Cache duration and how to refresh it
The account that manages contracts, billing, and notices, plus RAM permissions

Even for a static site, if HTML, images, video, and fonts are served from different origins, the domains to verify and the caches to manage also increase. For post-launch operations, avoid gathering contracts and identity verification under a temporary production-company account. It is safer for the client to own the Alibaba Cloud account, and for the production side to receive only OSS and CDN operation permissions through RAM, the Alibaba Cloud equivalent of AWS IAM.

Third-party services

Even if Alibaba Cloud can return HTML, that does not mean third-party services on the page will connect the same way from mainland China. Do not judge from Japan-only display. List the hostnames in use once, and verification from a local environment is essential.

Web fonts
External JavaScript and CSS CDNs
Embeds for video, maps, and social media
Analytics and tag management
CAPTCHA and contact forms
External APIs such as CMS, search, and logging
Official Account, JS API security domain, and signature-generation API when customizing sharing with WeChat JS-SDK

A single failed connection can lead to missing body content, forms that cannot submit, or loading that never finishes. Keep core information and primary paths usable even when a third-party service fails alone.

Browser environment in China

China-facing websites also expand the browsers to verify. Differences exist across browsers, but checking every browser and version at the same depth inflates the effort. Priority needs to be set per project.

Browser share in China for July 2026 according to StatCounter is as follows.

Browser	PC + mobile	PC	Mobile
Chrome	52%	48%	56%
Edge	16%	29%	5%
Safari	14%	3%	24%
360 Safe Browser	5%	10%	—
UC Browser	5%	—	10%
QQ Browser	4%	3%	4%

— means the browser was not listed in the top six of that breakdown. It does not mean there is no usage.

These figures do not directly represent the audience of an individual site or in-app browsers, so treat them as reference values when deciding supported environments.

Differences from Chrome, Edge, and Safari

Chrome and Edge use Blink. Safari uses WebKit. For China-facing work, multiple browsing modes, proprietary mobile kernels, and in-app WebViews are added on top. Do not choose verification targets from nationwide share alone. Select them from the audience and traffic paths.

Environment	When to prioritize it	Differences and checks
Chrome, Edge, and Safari	Baseline desktop and mobile environments	Check differences between Blink and WebKit
360 Safe Browser	Primarily desktop traffic	Extreme Speed Mode uses Chromium 132. Check Compatibility Mode only when needed
UC Browser	Primarily mobile traffic	Uses its own U4 kernel. Check key pages and interactions on representative devices
WeChat and similar	Significant traffic from apps	In-app WebView. Check back navigation, external transitions, video, and downloads
QQ Browser and HarmonyOS	Included in the audience or target devices	Add QQ Browser and Huawei devices as needed

For Chinese browsers, do not assume full page parity. Prioritize display of key pages and important paths such as contact. Narrow Web fonts, JavaScript, WebGL, video, and similar features to what the site actually uses. Share excluded browsers and versions in advance.

Additional checks

The following items require attention in addition to implementation.

Preliminary research and inquiries about the operating entity, delivery region, ICP filing, account, and domain
Design and configuration of OSS, CDN, and certificates
Inventory of external domains and APIs, and connectivity checks from mainland China
Agreement on target browsers, devices, and versions, followed by display verification
Bug fixes and rechecks in priority environments
Schedule coordination including filing, review, and resubmission
Submit a PSB filing within 30 days after launch and display its filing number after approval
Handover of post-launch contracts, billing, notices, renewals, and RAM permissions

What is difficult about China-facing website production is not handling one special setting. Contracts, filings, delivery, implementation, and verification, which can usually proceed separately, become prerequisites for one another. Decide who to confirm with and in what order first, and build investigation and verification into the production process.

References

※ Alibaba Cloud statements are based on official documentation as of August 4, 2026. Browser usage figures refer to StatCounter's July 2026 data.
※ This article is an AI translation of the Japanese original.

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