China standardizes official government websites

China will add an official label to all official government websites, according to the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform (SCOPSR) and Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Tuesday.

Domain names of some government outlets were not properly labeled while the approval for portals has been careless, causing problems and confusion to the public, said Song Qing, deputy chief of SCOPR's E-government affairs department.

The misuse and choice of domain names also brought security problems including hijacking or falsifying of websites to steal personal information.

The label will be exclusively used on approved government sites and philanthropic portals to distinguish them from commercial ones, Song said.

The label in the background of the home page will include the department name, category, address, domain name, issuer of the label and the time of issue.

The central government will soon review all existing government portals and rectify irregularities, said Wang Rongxiang, vice dean of the communication bureau of the CAC.