TL;DR

Most global websites either fail to load or load too slowly for visitors in Mainland China. Chinafy tested 614 websites across industries from Beijing, Virginia, and London, and found that two-thirds of them failed to load in China entirely. The ones that did load averaged significantly longer load times than the same sites tested from the US or UK. One of the primary causes are third-party resources (like Google Fonts, analytics scripts, social media embeds, and YouTube videos) that are slow or blocked in China, combined with the physical distance between offshore servers and Chinese visitors. The good news is that there are ways to get your website loading fast and fully for visitors in China without rebuilding or rehosting your website.

Read the full findings in The State of Global Website Performance in China.

Most global websites don't work in Mainland China

If you've never tested your website from inside China, there's a reasonable chance it isn't performing the way you'd expect.

Chinafy's The State of Global Website Performance in China report tested 614 global websites from three locations: Beijing (China), Virginia (US), and London (UK). The same websites, tested under the same conditions, from three different regions.

Two-thirds of the websites tested failed to load in China.

That means the majority of global websites tested either timed out completely or were functionally unusable for visitors in Mainland China. These weren't obscure or poorly built sites. They were websites from well-known global organizations across industries including hotels, education, financial services, technology, and seven other sectors.

What "not working" actually looks like

"Not working" doesn't always mean a completely blank screen, although in many cases it does. It can also mean:

Pages that partially load with missing images, broken layouts, or missing functionality

Forms, chatbots, or booking widgets that fail to appear

Videos that won't play because the embedded player is blocked

Pages that technically load but take 20 or 30+ seconds to do so, which most visitors won't wait for

For the websites in the report that did manage to load in China, average load times were significantly slower than the same sites loaded from the US or UK. In some industries, average load times exceeded 20 seconds.

To put that in perspective, most users will leave a page if it takes longer than a few seconds to load.

Why global websites fail in China

One common assumption is that websites don't work in China because they aren't hosted there, or because they don't have an ICP license. While hosting location and compliance do play a role, they aren't the full picture.

The primary reason most global websites fail in Mainland China is the combination of incompatible infrastructure and incompatible third-party resources.

Modern websites rely heavily on third-party services: Google Fonts for typography, Google Analytics or Tag Manager for tracking, YouTube or Vimeo for video, reCAPTCHA for security, Facebook or X (Twitter) plugins for social sharing, and dozens of others embedded into the site's code. Many of these services are slow, restricted, or entirely inaccessible from within China.

When even one critical third-party resource fails to load, it can cascade into broader page failures. A blocked analytics script can delay the entire page render. A font that won't load can leave text invisible. A failed JavaScript dependency can break interactive elements across the site.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of resources that have incompatibility issues in China, and the way they behave differs and changes over time. There is no one-off list or manual fix that permanently resolves this.

Beyond third-party resources, the physical distance between offshore servers and visitors in China also contributes to slower load times. But distance alone doesn't explain why sites fail entirely.

Which industries are most affected?

Chinafy’s report found that website performance issues in China are widespread across industries, but some sectors were hit harder than others.

Hotel websites had the highest failure rate of any industry tested. 75% of hotel websites timed out completely when tested from Beijing. The ones that did load averaged 22.9 seconds. For an industry that depends on international travelers, including the growing number of Chinese outbound tourists, that's a significant gap.

Education, technology, and financial services websites also showed high failure rates, with many sites either timing out or loading with critical functionality missing.

The pattern was consistent in showing that all industries were affected across all web performance metrics in Beijing.

What this means for your business

If your website serves or could serve visitors in Mainland China, and it hasn't been specifically optimized for the region, it's likely underperforming.

This could mean potential customers, students, investors, partners, or travelers are visiting your site and seeing a blank page, a broken layout, or giving up after waiting too long for it to load. In many cases, you wouldn't know this is happening unless someone in China tells you, because your analytics tools may not be capturing those visits either.

It's worth noting that China's internet environment can change. Domains and services that work one month may not work the next. A website that loaded slowly but functionally six months ago might now time out entirely unless optimized specifically for China. This is an ongoing challenge, not a one-time fix.

How to check if your website works in China

The simplest way to find out is to test it. Free performance tools like Chinafy’s Global Speed Test and Catchpoint’s Web Page Test are a great place to start. Chinafy also offers a free website audit that shows how your site loads from within Mainland China compared to elsewhere in the world.

You can also ask colleagues, partners, or customers based in China to share their experience accessing your site. If they're reporting blank pages, slow loads, or missing content, the issues described above are the likely cause.

How Chinafy helps

Chinafy optimizes websites at both infrastructure and code levels, handling the third-party resources that are slow or blocked in China and layering on infrastructure built for the region, including near-China CDNs.

This means websites can achieve near-native onshore performance while remaining offshore, without requiring a rebuild, rehost, or migration. Chinafy works as a bolt-on solution alongside your existing setup, whether your site runs on WordPress, Drupal, a custom-built stack, or almost any CMS platform.

Because China's internet environment is constantly changing, Chinafy includes automated rule-based optimizations as well as human engineers who monitor and troubleshoot issues as they arise, so your team doesn't need to keep up with every change.

Read the full report: For the complete data across all industries tested, including performance benchmarks from Beijing, Virginia, and London, read The State of Global Website Performance in China.

Get in touch if you want to see how your website loads in China, connect with the Chinafy team for a free site evaluation.

FAQs

Why doesn't my website work in China? 

Most global websites fail in Mainland China due to third-party resources (such as Google Fonts, YouTube embeds, and analytics scripts) that are slow or blocked in the region. Physical distance from offshore servers also contributes to slower load times, but third-party incompatibilities are typically the overlooked cause of failures.

Do I need an ICP license for my website to work in China? 

Not necessarily. An ICP license is required if you want to host your website on servers in Mainland China, but it is not required for your website to be accessible from China. Websites hosted offshore can still achieve strong performance in China with the right optimization.

Do I need to rebuild my website for China? 

No. Solutions like Chinafy work as a bolt-on to your existing site, optimizing code-level compatibility and handling third-party resources without requiring you to rebuild, rehost, or migrate your website.

How many websites were tested in Chinafy's report? 

Chinafy tested 614 global websites from Beijing, Virginia, and London. Two-thirds of the websites tested failed to load in China.

Which industries had the worst performance in China? 

Hotel websites had the highest failure rate at 75%, with those that loaded averaging 22.9-second load times. Education, technology, and financial services also showed high failure rates.

Is China web performance a one-time fix? 

No. China's internet environment changes over time, with domains and services that work one month potentially becoming inaccessible the next. Ongoing monitoring and optimization are needed to maintain consistent performance.

Disclaimer: This article is informational and does not constitute legal advice. Chinafy is not a legal or corporate advisory entity, and, given that every business is different, we suggest consulting with your internal legal counsel if you would like advice on any legal or compliance-related concerns, or alternatively we can connect you with one of our partners.