The China Internet Network Information Center has announced that it has increased the price for .CN domain names, and the new price policy went into effect on January 1, 2010.

This has reportedly been the second price increase for .CN domain names in China since 2007. At the end of 2008, China raised the price for the domains for the first time. Prior to that, the registration cost for one .CN domain name was only CNY1, which allowed many spammers, search engine marketers, and hackers from around the world to buy bulk domain names and then use those names as the origins of many of their respective attacks.

After this new adjustment, the lowest registration price for a .CN domain name provided by HiChina, a leading domain name registration service provider, is CNY69 per year.

Commenting on this price increase, HiChina said that the company fully supports CNNIC to promote the standard and healthy application of .CN domain names via price levers. The price increase aims to coordinate with China's review mechanism for domain name registration information and further crack down on registration of domain names with false information.

According to information from foreign domain name registration service providers, China Internet Network Information Center has required these providers to suspend new registrations for dot CN domain names.

However, this change only applies to new dot CN registrations. CN registrants can still manage their existing dot CN domains. Dot CN domain transfer and CN domain renew requests are not affected with Chinese domain registars.

This is reportedly a new measure launched by CNNIC to enhance its management of dot CN domain names.