Most of an ICP filing (ICP备案) is about the company: a mainland entity that owns it and a mainland server it’s made against. But the review looks at the WordPress site as well. Its domain needs a mainland registrar and the filer’s name on it. The site name has to be Chinese and pass provincial rules, and the content must match the record. During a first filing, the site stays dark until the number is issued. Only a site that charges users needs the ICP licence on top.
| What the review checks | What it means for the WordPress build |
|---|---|
| The domain | Real-name verified at a mainland registrar, in the filer’s name |
| The site name | Three or more Chinese characters, used as the Site Title |
| The content | Matches the company’s business; no unapproved regulated topic |
| Reachability during review | None. No holding page, no staging on the mainland server |
| The footer, once approved | The ICP number linked to MIIT, then the public security number |
Every source below was checked on 13 October 2026.
Filing or ICP licence: does the site charge for anything?
China sorts internet information services into two kinds. The rule takes two sentences.
Commercial internet information services provide information or web page production services to users for a fee. Non-commercial services provide public, shared information to users free of charge. Source: State Council, Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services (互联网信息服务管理办法), article 3, text of 8 January 2011, which the revision of 6 December 2024 left unchanged. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2011/content_1860864.htm
A company site, a blog, a product catalogue and a careers page are free to read, so they need the filing. A paywall or a membership plugin that sells courses points to the licence, and that path needs a licensed adviser.
A WooCommerce shop is the case people argue about. China’s negative list for foreign investment carves e-commerce out of the 50% foreign ownership cap on value-added telecoms, which tells you shops are treated as their own category. Where yours falls is an adviser’s question. Ask it before you file. Our guide to ICP filing for foreign companies covers the licence, the ownership cap and the pilot zones.
What the filing needs from the site, not from the company
Three things on the site side can sink an application before a person ever looks at it.
The domain. Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) lists three requirements, none of them about hosting.
The domain suffix must be approved by MIIT, the registrar must be an approved one, and the domain holder’s details must match the filing entity. Domains registered on Alibaba Cloud’s international site must be transferred to a mainland registrar and real-name verified before filing. Source: Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) help centre, domain preparation and checks, last updated 23 September 2026. https://help.aliyun.com/zh/icp-filing/basic-icp-service/user-guide/prepare-and-check-the-domain-name
The same page asks for more than 45 days left before the domain expires. A domain your agency in Europe registered in its own name fails the third test on day one.
The site name. This is the field that trips WordPress teams. It has to be Chinese, and it has to be decided early (it ends up in the Site Title).
A company website name must be three or more Chinese characters. Pure numbers, English and domain names are not allowed, and the name must match the site’s real content. Non-state bodies may not use words such as 中国, 中华 or 国家, and words such as blog, forum, online or community need pre-approval. Source: Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) help centre, filling in website information, last updated 21 September 2026. https://help.aliyun.com/zh/icp-filing/basic-icp-service/user-guide/fill-in-website-information
Provinces add banned words of their own. Alibaba’s list of rejection reasons (7 July 2026) asks a filed site to show the filed name in the browser tab and at the top of the page, so the Site Title under Settings > General carries it.
The content. Tencent Cloud (腾讯云) says a company filing must cover the company’s own site, with content inside its business scope (documentation updated 23 July 2026). Some topics need a regulator’s approval before the filing is even submitted.
Internet information services in news, publishing, education and similar fields that need approval from the competent department must obtain it before applying for a licence or completing the filing. Source: State Council, Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services, article 5 as amended by State Council Order 797 of 6 December 2024, in force from 20 January 2025. https://www.mee.gov.cn/zcwj/gwywj/202412/t20241216_1098631.shtml
Alibaba’s own pre-approval list runs wider.
| Content on the WordPress site | What it needs before the filing |
|---|---|
| News or current affairs | An internet news information licence |
| Online publishing | An online publishing service licence |
| Drug or medical device information | A drug information service certificate |
| Video and audio programmes | An audiovisual programme licence |
| Off-campus tutoring, finance, religion | Approval from the sector regulator |
| None of these | In some regions, a signed declaration |
Source for the table: Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) help centre, pre-approvals, last updated 21 August 2026.
Dark during review: no holding page
For a first filing, the site isn’t allowed to be online at all while the regulator examines it. Tencent puts it bluntly.
During review of a new filing or a new website, the site cannot be accessed. It must be closed or unreachable through its public domain or IP, or it fails the regulator’s check and may be rejected. Source: Tencent Cloud (腾讯云) documentation, last updated 21 August 2026. https://cloud.tencent.com/document/product/243/19650
Alibaba enforces it too.
A site may not open web service before it has a filing number. If it does, Alibaba Cloud’s monitoring identifies it and blocks the site. Source: Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) help centre, ICP filing FAQ, last updated 23 September 2026. https://help.aliyun.com/zh/icp-filing/basic-icp-service/support/faq-about-icp-filing-preparations
A “coming soon” plugin on the mainland server is the wrong move, and so is a staging copy on its public IP. On our projects, ports 80 and 443 stay closed until the number arrives anyway.
Filing the domain your global site already runs on? Tencent’s sentence makes no exception for a site hosted elsewhere, so ask the provider before you submit.
The build carries on somewhere else: a local or offshore staging copy. The review window is a good time to strip out the blocked dependencies (our guide to moving WordPress into China lists them).
| When | The filing | The WordPress build |
|---|---|---|
| Before you submit | Entity, domain, Chinese site name, server | Set the Site Title; decide on comments and forms |
| Review (we plan 3 to 6 weeks) | Provider check, then provincial review | Staging off the mainland server; fix dependencies |
| The number arrives | Filing approved | Deploy, footer number in, domain pointed at the server |
| Within 30 days of opening | Public security filing | Second number in the footer |
Three to six weeks is our planning figure. On paper it’s shorter.
Alibaba Cloud’s own check takes 1 to 2 working days. The provincial Communications Administration (省级通信管理局) review that follows generally takes 1 to 20 working days. Source: Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) help centre, ICP filing process overview, last updated 26 August 2026. https://help.aliyun.com/zh/icp-filing/basic-icp-service/user-guide/icp-filing-application-overview
Alibaba charges nothing for the filing itself; you pay for the mainland server it’s made against (FAQ updated 23 April 2026).
In WordPress, the first things to come off before the site opens are comments and forums.
The rules and the providers disagree here. Article 9 of the State Council measures still mentions a special application for electronic bulletin services (forums and message boards). But the State Council cancelled that approval, and the ministry repealed its bulletin rules on 23 September 2014. Alibaba’s rejection list still names electronic bulletin content among the topics that need approval, and the provider runs the first review of your file.
We haven’t found a current filing page that deals with plain blog comments. So launch with comments switched off and bbPress or BuddyPress uninstalled, then check with the provider before you turn anything back on.
Why WordPress.com can’t be filed
WordPress.com offers data centres in US West, US Central, US East and EU West (support page reviewed 21 September 2026). None of them is in the mainland, and the filing is made by whoever provides the server’s network access.
A server bought elsewhere can’t be filed at Tencent Cloud. Filing follows the principle that whoever provides access files it: you file with the provider whose server you use. Source: Tencent Cloud (腾讯云) documentation, last updated 30 January 2026. https://cloud.tencent.com/document/product/243/19631
A WordPress.com site that has to live in China becomes self-hosted WordPress on a mainland server, the build our WordPress in China page describes.
Whether it loads in China is another matter, and GreatFire’s answer beats the older guides.
GreatFire reads https://wordpress.com as not blocked: all 20 recent conclusive tests from mainland China connected normally, the last on 11 October 2026. Source: GreatFire, reachability record for https://wordpress.com, read 13 October 2026. https://en.greatfire.org/https/wordpress.com
The domain underneath is patchier: of 1,516 wordpress.com URLs tested, 230 read blocked and 823 disrupted (GreatFire domain page, 13 October 2026).
The filing console, and who on your side owns it
The filing runs in a provider console, and which account you open matters. At Alibaba it has to be an aliyun.com account.
Alibaba Cloud international site (alibabacloud.com) accounts do not support ICP filing applications. Source: Alibaba Cloud help centre, ICP filing for enterprises outside the Chinese mainland, last updated 20 August 2026. https://help.aliyun.com/en/icp-filing/basic-icp-service/product-overview/icp-filing-application-for-enterprises-outside-the-chinese-mainland
The person responsible for the site then uploads an ID and passes a face check. Alibaba accepts a passport from residents of other countries (11 September 2026), but its face check is written around the mainland ID card (2 June 2026), and no page we’ve found says how a passport holder passes it.
The clock that catches teams is the text message.
After the filing order is submitted, MIIT sends a verification SMS. Complete the verification within 24 hours, or the filing has to be submitted again. Source: Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) help centre, MIIT SMS verification, last updated 17 September 2025. https://help.aliyun.com/zh/icp-filing/basic-icp-service/user-guide/sms-check
So the owner is a named person at the mainland entity. They hold the console login, use a phone number from the filing’s province (Alibaba’s advice) and answer within the day. Your freelance developer and the project manager in Lyon are the wrong people for it.
Alibaba rejects filings whose contact phone goes unanswered, and Tencent says a filing can be cancelled when the number on it is dead at a spot check. Our China Hosting service handles the filing end to end, and even then the text message goes to the person you named.
After approval: two footer numbers and the yearly duties
Once the number arrives, the work shrinks to housekeeping. The number goes on the site the day it opens.
A non-commercial internet information service provider shall show its filing number at the bottom centre of its homepage when the site opens, with a link to the MIIT filing system beneath it. Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工业和信息化部), Measures for the Administration of Non-Commercial Internet Information Service Filing, article 13, as amended on 18 January 2024. https://www.miit.gov.cn/gyhxxhb/jgsj/cyzcyfgs/bmgz/xxtxl/art/2024/art_84a0cfa0ebd049bbbe751dca9a008e56.html
In WordPress, put it in a footer widget or a child theme. A number typed into the parent theme’s footer.php lasts until the next theme update, and a missing link can bring an order to correct it and then a fine (article 25).
The public security filing (公安备案) follows. Alibaba gives it 30 days from the site opening, and the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau (10 June 2023) says the number goes in a prominent position at the bottom of the homepage once it’s approved. That makes two numbers in the footer.
Then the yearly duties. The MIIT measures ask for any change to the filed details 30 days in advance and a cancellation on the day the service stops. And the text still provides for an annual review through the MIIT system.
Moving the WordPress site to another provider needs a transfer filing, and that one runs the other way round: the filed site has to stay reachable, and Alibaba rejects a transfer when it can’t be reached. Let the server lapse with no new provider and the record becomes an empty shell, which Tencent says the regulator cancels (documentation updated 3 February 2026).
The child theme is also where Baidu Tongji (百度统计) goes. No maintained plugin is dedicated to it, and Baidu’s help page (22 September 2021) says to put the code before the closing head tag on every page.
Frequently asked
Do I need an ICP filing for my WordPress website?
Only if it’s served from a server in mainland China. A site hosted in Hong Kong or Europe needs no filing and pays for it at the border instead, where every request crosses the Great Firewall. A mainland server can’t open the site to visitors until the filing clears, and a site that charges users also needs the ICP licence.
Can I keep a coming-soon page up while the filing is reviewed?
Not on the mainland server, and not under the domain being filed. Tencent Cloud says the site must be closed or unreachable by its public domain or IP during a first filing, or the regulator’s check can reject it. Build on a local or offshore staging copy and point the domain at the mainland server once the number is issued.
Can our developer abroad own the filing account?
They can build the site, but the filing belongs to the mainland entity. The filer must be a mainland company or resident, the domain must be in its name, and MIIT’s text message to the number on the filing has to be answered within 24 hours. None of the three sits with a developer abroad.
How long does the ICP filing take for a WordPress site?
Alibaba Cloud publishes 1 to 2 working days for its own check and generally 1 to 20 working days for the provincial review. We plan three to six weeks, because documents take time and applications come back. Finish the build on staging before the number arrives.
Need help with this?
ChinaWebFoundry handles WordPress projects in China end to end. If any of this feels like more than you want to tackle alone, get in touch.
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