Published by ChinaMNC · Bayan

Website Identity Labels and Accessibility Ratings: A Practical Guide for Foreign Founders Evaluating Chinese Government Portals

A ChinaMNC explainer on how China's official website identity label (标识) system works, using the Heilongjiang Provincial Government portal's published evaluation data to show foreign founders what the label, ratings and inspection schedule actually tell them.

What the Website Identity Label Means for Foreign Founders

Foreign founders setting up or operating a company in China regularly deal with government portals — for company registration filings, tax matters, permits, and compliance checks. Knowing whether a portal is an officially certified site matters. China operates a website identity label system (标识管理) for government and institutional sites, and the published record for one provincial government portal offers a clear, concrete example of what that label contains.

The source record covers the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Government portal at www.hlj.gov.cn. Its institutional information states that the sponsoring body is the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Government, the institution type is a Party and government organ, and the site name is the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Government. The record also carries an electronic identity label number. For founders, this structure is the key point: the label ties a specific web address to a named official sponsor and a registration number you can check.

Who Issues and Oversees the Label

The source identifies the competent authority as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工业和信息化部) and the issuing body as the Internet Society of China (中国互联网协会). This two-layer arrangement is worth noting. Founders who encounter a site claiming official status can use the issuing-body reference to understand who stands behind the certification, rather than relying on the site's own presentation.

Certification Validity Periods

According to the source, both the PC website label and the WAP (mobile) website label carry a two-year validity period, running from 5 March 2026 to 4 March 2028. The certificate authentication record lists the same two-year window. For founders, a defined expiry date is a useful check: a label that is out of date, or whose stated period does not match the published record, is a signal to verify before relying on the site.

The Evaluation Scores and What They Measure

The source publishes separate evaluation blocks for the PC site and the WAP site. Each block is split into accessibility-for-seniors (适老化) and accessibility (无障碍) reviews, each with three components: self-assessment, institutional assessment, and user assessment. A separate efficiency index covers completeness, reliability and robustness, each expressed as a percentage. An overall score is then given.

PC Website Evaluation

• Accessibility for seniors: self-assessment 100; institutional assessment 82; user assessment 80.
• Accessibility: self-assessment 100; institutional assessment 83; user assessment 84.
• Efficiency index: completeness 100%; reliability 100%; robustness 100%.
• Overall evaluation score: 85.8.

WAP Website Evaluation

• Accessibility for seniors: self-assessment 100; institutional assessment 83; user assessment 83.
• Accessibility: self-assessment 100; institutional assessment 80; user assessment 83.
• Efficiency index: completeness 100%; reliability 100%; robustness 100%.
• Overall evaluation score: 85.8.

Note the pattern: self-assessments are uniformly 100, while institutional and user assessments sit in the low-to-mid 80s. For a founder reading such a record, the third-party scores are the more informative figures. The source presents these numbers without further commentary, and this article does not add any.

Scheduled Inspections

The label regime includes periodic inspection (定期巡检). The source lists inspection dates of 4 September 2026, 4 March 2027 and 4 September 2027, with the inspection result recorded as passed for each. The remark field is left blank in the source. Scheduled, dated inspections with recorded outcomes are a concrete element founders can look for when assessing whether a portal's label is actively maintained rather than issued once and forgotten.

The Certificate and Downloadable Report

Under certificate authentication, the source repeats the two-year validity window of 5 March 2026 to 4 March 2028 and provides a downloadable document: an accessibility and senior-accessibility evaluation report for the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Government portal, in sealed (用印版) form. For founders, the existence of a downloadable, sealed report is a practical detail — it means the underlying evaluation can be reviewed rather than taken on trust.

How Foreign Founders Can Use This

This record is one example, but it shows the anatomy of the label system. When you encounter a Chinese government or institutional portal in the course of registering or operating your company, you can look for the same elements:

• Sponsor and institution type — who the site belongs to, stated explicitly.
• Electronic label number — a registration identifier tied to the site address.
• Issuing and competent authorities — who certified and who oversees.
• Validity dates — whether certification is current.
• Inspection dates and results — whether the label is being maintained.
• Evaluation scores — with institutional and user assessments separated from self-assessment.

Treat the label as one input among several. It confirms that a site is registered under the identity label scheme and gives you dated, checkable data. It does not, on its own, tell you whether a specific procedure or form is the right one for your company.

Practical Cautions

Because the validity period is finite and inspections are scheduled at intervals, the record you read today may not reflect the current status. Check the dates against the day you are relying on the information. Where the source gives a certificate download, use it to confirm the details rather than relying on a summary. And keep in mind that the scores published here relate to accessibility, senior-accessibility and site efficiency — not to the legal substance of any registration or filing.

Bottom Line

China's website identity label system gives foreign founders a structured way to check whether a government portal is officially sponsored, currently certified and periodically inspected. The Heilongjiang record shows what that looks like in practice: a named sponsor, a label number, a two-year validity window, three scheduled inspections with passed results, separated evaluation scores for PC and mobile sites, and a downloadable sealed report. Use these elements as a verification checklist when you deal with official portals during company setup and ongoing operations.

Foreign founders who need hands-on support with registering and operating a company in China can contact ChinaMNC on WhatsApp or WeChat at +86 153 1898 8535.

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