Published by ChinaMNC ยท Zhaohua
China Website Identity Labels: What Foreign Founders Should Know About the Sichuan Government Portal Certification
A practical look at China's website identity label system, using the Sichuan Provincial Government portal's certification and evaluation results as a worked example for foreign founders operating company websites in China.
Why Website Identity Labels Matter for Foreign Founders in China
Foreign founders setting up or running a company in China quickly encounter the country's website identity label system. Operated under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, with labels issued by the Internet Society of China, the system attaches a verifiable electronic identity marker to a website. The label signals that the site's operator has been reviewed and that the site meets certain technical and accessibility standards. For foreign founders, understanding how the label works, how long it lasts, and how sites are evaluated is useful practical knowledge when planning a company website, an e-commerce presence, or a portal serving Chinese users.
The source material describes the certification record of the Sichuan Provincial Government portal. Although a government site is not a commercial company site, its published label data illustrates the structure of the system clearly, including evaluation categories, scoring, validity periods and inspection schedules.
What the Label Record Contains
Operator and issuing information
The portal is listed as operated by the General Office of the Sichuan Provincial People's Government, with an institutional type of Party and government organ. Its website address is published as www.sc.gov.cn, and it carries an electronic label number. The competent authority for the label system is the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the issuing body is the Internet Society of China. Foreign founders can expect the same two bodies to sit behind the label framework that applies to their own company websites.
Validity period
Both the PC website label and the WAP (mobile) website label for the Sichuan portal are certified for two years, running from 27 January 2026 to 26 January 2028. The certificate authentication carries the same two-year validity window and the same dates. The practical takeaway is that label certification is time-limited and must be renewed; a company website cannot treat certification as permanent.
Scheduled inspections
The record lists periodic inspection dates at roughly six-month intervals: 26 July 2026, 26 January 2027 and 26 July 2027. The inspection result shown is "passed." This indicates that certified sites are subject to ongoing checks during the validity period rather than a single review at the point of certification.
How the Portal Was Evaluated
The source publishes separate evaluation results for the PC site and the WAP site, each divided into accessibility-related scoring and an efficiency index covering completeness, reliability and robustness.
PC website results
- Elder-friendly evaluation: self-assessment 100, institutional assessment 82, user assessment 83.
- Accessibility evaluation: self-assessment 100, institutional assessment 83, user assessment 83.
- Efficiency index: completeness 100%, reliability 100%, robustness 100%.
- Overall evaluation score: 86.2.
WAP website results
- Elder-friendly evaluation: self-assessment 100, institutional assessment 82, user assessment 81.
- Accessibility evaluation: self-assessment 100, institutional assessment 80, user assessment 82.
- Efficiency index: completeness 100%, reliability 100%, robustness 100%.
- Overall evaluation score: 85.4.
Two features stand out. First, three parties score the site: the operator itself, an institutional assessor, and users. Self-assessment scores are consistently higher than the other two, which suggests founders should not assume self-reported figures carry the same weight as external review. Second, the efficiency index is reported as percentages for completeness, reliability and robustness, giving a structured way to think about technical performance.
Accessibility and Elder-Friendly Design
The evaluation categories point to requirements that go beyond basic functionality. Accessibility and elder-friendly design are treated as distinct, scored dimensions. For foreign founders building consumer-facing sites in China, this is a reminder that usability for older users and users with disabilities forms part of how a site's quality is judged. The source also references a downloadable report on the portal's elder-friendly and accessibility evaluation, indicating that formal assessment documents accompany certification.
Practical Steps for Foreign Founders
- Plan for renewal cycles. Label certification in this example lasts two years. Build renewal into your compliance calendar rather than treating certification as a one-off task.
- Expect periodic inspections. The record shows inspections scheduled during the validity period, with results recorded. Keep site documentation and technical records available.
- Treat PC and mobile separately. The source certifies and scores the PC site and the WAP site as separate items, each with its own validity dates. A mobile version of your site may need its own attention.
- Prepare for multi-party evaluation. Self-assessment, institutional assessment and user assessment are all recorded. External review is part of the process.
- Do not overlook accessibility. Elder-friendly and accessibility scoring appear as core evaluation categories, not optional extras.
- Verify label details. The record includes an electronic label number, issuing body and validity dates. Foreign founders can use these elements to understand what a compliant label record looks like.
How to Read This Example
The Sichuan portal is a government site, so its scores and inspection schedule do not set benchmarks for private companies. What transfers is the structure: a competent authority and issuing body, a defined validity period, scheduled inspections, separate treatment of PC and mobile sites, and evaluation across accessibility, elder-friendly design and technical efficiency. Foreign founders can use this structure to ask the right questions when planning a company website in China and to understand the kind of documentation a certified site carries.
This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.