China Internet Network Information Center

The China Internet Network Information Center (simplified Chinese: 中国互联网络信息中心; traditional Chinese: 中國互聯網絡信息中心; pinyin: Zhōngguó Hùlián Wǎngluò Xìnxī Zhōngxīn), or CNNIC, is the administrative agency responsible for Internet affairs under the Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China.

It is based in the Zhongguancun high tech district of Beijing. It was founded on June 3, 1997 as a so-called "non-profit organization".

CNNIC is responsible for operating and administering China’s domain name registry. CNNIC manages both the ".cn" country code top level domain and the Chinese Domain Name system (Internationalized domain names that contain Chinese characters). As of June 2015, the total number of Chinese domain names is 22,310,000.

As of January 2009, CNNIC only opens the CN domain to registered businesses, requires supporting documentations for domain registration such as business license or personal ID, and suspended overseas registrars even for domestic registrants. CNNIC denies that it mandates existing personal domain names to be transferred to businesses.Trend Micro suggests this move is still not enough to stop modern security threats from the .cn domain.

CNNIC allocates (IP) addresses and AS Numbers to domestic ISPs and users. CNNIC is a National Internet Registry (NIR) acknowledged by the Asia-Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC). In late 2004 CNNIC launched an “IP Allocation Alliance” which simplified the procedures for obtaining IP addresses.

...
Wikipedia