Published by ChinaMNC · Dongfeng

Website Identity Labels in China: What Foreign Founders Should Know About the Heilongjiang Government Portal Case

A practical look at China's website identity label system, using the Heilongjiang Provincial Government portal's published evaluation and certification data as a concrete example for foreign founders operating company websites in China.

Website Identity Labels: A Practical Primer for Foreign Founders

Foreign founders setting up or running a company in China quickly discover that a corporate website is not simply a marketing asset. It is also a regulated information channel that can be evaluated, certified and monitored by Chinese authorities and industry bodies. A recent public disclosure from the Heilongjiang Provincial Government portal illustrates how this system works in practice, and it offers useful signals for foreign entrepreneurs about what Chinese regulators track when they assess a government or institutional website.

The source material is an official identity-label management page. It lists institutional information, performance evaluations, label certification periods, scheduled inspections and certificate downloads. Although the subject is a provincial government portal rather than a private company, the structure of the disclosure is instructive: it shows the categories of information that sit behind a Chinese website identity label.

Who Issues and Oversees Website Identity Labels

According to the source, the identity-label system is overseen at the ministry level by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, while the issuing body is the Internet Society of China. For foreign founders, this division matters. The ministry is the central regulator for the internet and telecommunications sector in China, and the Internet Society of China acts as the operational issuer of the label in this case.

The source also identifies the institution itself: the Heilongjiang Provincial Government, classified as a Party and government organ, with its website at www.hlj.gov.cn. The electronic identity label number is DZJG20260300003507PW. This numbering format is worth noting because it is the kind of identifier that appears in official disclosures and can be checked against the issuing body's records.

Certification Periods

The source states that both the PC website label certification and the WAP (mobile) website label certification are valid for two years, running from 5 March 2026 to 4 March 2028. The same two-year validity period applies to the certificate certification. This is a concrete data point for foreign founders: identity labels are time-limited and must be renewed. A website operating under an expired label would be exposed to compliance risk.

What the Evaluations Actually Measure

The disclosure breaks the assessment into several components for both the PC and WAP versions of the site. These components are relevant to any founder building a China-facing website, because they represent the dimensions Chinese evaluators consider.

• Elderly-friendly adaptation (适老化): the site is scored on how well it serves older users. The source shows separate self-assessment, institutional assessment and user assessment scores for this category.
• Accessibility (无障碍): the site is scored on accessibility, again with self-assessment, institutional assessment and user assessment figures.
• Efficiency index (效能指数): this covers comprehensiveness, reliability and robustness, each reported at 100% in the source.
• Overall evaluation score: the source reports an overall score of 85.8 for both the PC and WAP sites.

For the PC site, the source lists a self-assessment of 100, an institutional assessment of 82 and a user assessment of 80 for elderly-friendly adaptation, and a self-assessment of 100, an institutional assessment of 83 and a user assessment of 84 for accessibility. For the WAP site, the elderly-friendly figures are 100, 83 and 83, while the accessibility figures are 100, 80 and 83. These are the specific figures published in the source and should be read as such, not as benchmarks for private companies.

Why Three Sets of Scores Matter

The three-tier scoring model is a useful insight for foreign founders. Chinese evaluations do not rely solely on self-reporting. An institution's own assessment is paired with an institutional review and a user review. A founder preparing a company website for China should expect that claims about usability will be checked against external evaluation, and that user feedback forms part of the record.

Scheduled Inspections and Certificate Records

The source also discloses a regular inspection schedule. Inspection dates are listed as 4 September 2026, 4 March 2027 and 4 September 2027, with the inspection result recorded as passed. This confirms that holding a label is not a one-off event. Periodic checks continue throughout the validity period.

The page additionally provides a certificate download link: an accessibility and elderly-friendly evaluation report for the Heilongjiang Provincial Government portal, marked as a sealed version. For foreign founders, the takeaway is that certification generates documentation. Chinese regulators and issuing bodies maintain reports that can be produced on request, and companies should keep equivalent records for their own sites.

Practical Takeaways for Foreign Founders

Although the source concerns a government portal, the underlying framework applies to the wider Chinese web environment. Foreign founders should treat the following as practical guidance drawn from the disclosed structure:

• Identify the issuing authority. Confirm which body issues the relevant label and verify the label number against official records.
• Track validity dates. Labels and certificates carry fixed terms. The source shows a two-year cycle, so renewal planning should begin well before expiry.
• Prepare for multi-party evaluation. Self-assessment alone is insufficient; institutional and user assessments are part of the record.
• Build for accessibility and older users. These are named evaluation categories, not optional extras.
• Expect periodic inspections. Scheduled checks appear on the public record, and results are documented.
• Keep certificates and reports. Sealed evaluation reports are part of the official file and may be requested.

For a foreign founder, the Heilongjiang disclosure is a reminder that website compliance in China is documented, dated and inspectable. The specific scores and dates belong to that government portal, but the structure of the disclosure is a reasonable template for what a company should be ready to demonstrate about its own Chinese website.

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