What are the specific rules and guidelines to deliver emails to the Chinese market?
Updated on 11 Oct 2026: We clarified China's commercial email rules and added a practical inbox placement test for local mailbox providers.
Sending email to the Chinese market has specific rules and guidelines that go beyond a normal global deliverability checklist. Get explicit consent for commercial advertising email, label those messages clearly, avoid sensitive content, send in simplified Chinese when the audience expects it, keep HTML simple, throttle slowly, separate transactional and marketing streams, monitor bounces closely, and treat QQ Mail, NetEase, Sina, Sohu, and other local mailbox providers as their own delivery environment.
Plan mainland China delivery by mailbox provider before adding recipients to a campaign. The technical foundations still matter: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, reverse DNS, list hygiene, complaint control, and working links. China also adds stricter content filtering, slower acceptance patterns, local language expectations, higher sensitivity around URLs, commercial-email rules, and personal-information duties that are easy to miss when a program was built around US or EU assumptions.
- Consent: Use permission-based lists and keep proof of the signup source, date, language, form, and consent statement.
- Subject labels: Commercial advertising email must put a label near the beginning of the subject: 广告 or AD.
- Content: Avoid political or religious content, adult material, gambling, tobacco, illegal drugs, and other locally restricted topics.
- Language: Use fluent simplified Chinese for mainland campaigns and test UTF-8 character encoding before launch.
- Infrastructure: Authenticate every stream and monitor domain reputation, IP reputation, and DNS changes during the rollout.
- Volume: Start with small segments, measure acceptance by provider, and measure delivery time before increasing volume.
The direct answer
The unusual parts are the mandatory commercial subject label, strict filtering, local-provider throttling, simplified Chinese expectations, UTF-8 character encoding, high sensitivity to links and tracked URLs, and the practical need for local expertise when the audience is large or business-critical.
China's commercial email rules
China's commercial email rules require affirmative consent for messages containing advertising. Keep proof of consent, use accurate sender and envelope information, and put 广告 or AD near the beginning of the subject. Include a refusal contact method with the sender's email address and keep it valid for at least 30 days. Stop commercial sends when consent is withdrawn. These duties are set out in Articles 13 and 14 of the Internet Email Service Measures.
China campaigns face strict filtering across local mailbox providers. Explicit consent and commercial subject labels are compliance duties, while small-segment sending is an operational control. Filtering can cause delays, unclickable links, or non-delivery, so treat those outcomes as operational risks rather than edge cases.
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|
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|---|---|---|
Consent | Explicit permission | Store signup proof |
Subject | 广告 or AD near the beginning | Label every commercial ad |
Identity | Accurate envelope | Do not hide or forge |
Refusal | Refusal contact including sender email | Keep contact valid for 30 days; stop after refusal |
Content | Restricted topics | Review locally |
Core China email rules to check before launch.
Commercial subject line examplestext
广告：上海会员春季优惠 AD: Beijing training discount 广告：深圳门店新品优惠
Do not treat the label as a workaround
The 广告 or AD label does not fix poor consent, vague sender identity, risky content, or weak authentication. It only makes the commercial nature of the message explicit. A labeled message sent to a scraped list still breaks consent rules and damages sender reputation. A purely transactional receipt or account notice does not need the advertising label under this rule; adding promotional content brings the message within the advertising requirements.
Personal information and cross-border data
An email address, signup record, engagement history, device identifier, and related profile data can be personal information under China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). If a China subscriber list or its engagement logs are collected in China and then stored, viewed, or processed outside China, handle that transfer as a separate compliance workstream from inbox placement. PIPL also covers overseas processing that offers products or services to people in mainland China or analyzes their behavior.
- Map the data: Record where addresses, consent proof, events, and suppression data are collected, stored, accessed, and deleted.
- Limit the purpose: Collect only the data needed for the stated campaign purpose and document the processing basis.
- Explain offshore access: Tell people about the overseas recipient and its contact details, processing purpose, data types, and rights process, then obtain separate consent where PIPL requires it.
- Assess the transfer: Complete a personal-information protection impact assessment and identify the applicable cross-border route before moving data.
- Keep suppression data: Retain only what is needed to honor refusal and deletion requests without putting a removed address back into a campaign.
Data localization is not automatic
Under China's cross-border data rules, a non-critical-infrastructure processor exporting non-sensitive personal information of fewer than 100,000 people since January 1 of the current year can qualify for exemption from security assessment, a standard contract, and certification. The volume exemption excludes sensitive personal information and important data. Count individuals across relevant exports by the processor, including other campaigns. Notice, separate consent where required, security, and impact-assessment duties still apply. Confirm the data classification and transfer route before launch.
The export certification rules took effect on January 1, 2026. If certification is the applicable transfer route, follow that process alongside the thresholds and exemptions.
Authentication and DNS setup
SPF should pass for the envelope sender (Return-Path), and DKIM should provide a valid signature for your domain. DMARC passes when either passing SPF or a passing DKIM signature uses a domain that matches the visible From address under the configured mode. Relaxed mode requires matching organizational domains; strict mode requires identical domains. Enable DMARC reporting, configure forward-confirmed reverse DNS for the sending IP with a consistent EHLO hostname, and document every sending source. The domain-matching rules are defined in RFC 9989.
Before sending, run a broad domain health check across SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and DNS. If you see multiple SPF records at the same DNS name, missing DKIM records for selectors actually used, missing DMARC reporting destinations or report-processing errors, or unauthenticated third-party senders, fix those before testing China volumes.
Baseline DNS recordsdns
_dmarc.a.test TXT "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:d@a.test" a.test TXT "v=spf1 include:_spf.sender.test -all" s1._domainkey.a.test TXT "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIIB..."
The .test domains and shortened DKIM key are placeholders. Use your actual domains, authorized SPF sources, a complete public key, and a working reporting mailbox. This example uses p=none while the sender inventory is being checked. RFC 9989 removed DMARC's pct tag in May 2026, so do not copy pct=25 or another fractional value to stage enforcement. Change the policy only after reports and controlled tests show that legitimate sources authenticate correctly.
Suped's product is a DMARC and email authentication platform. It combines source discovery, DNS monitoring, alerts, and blocklist (blacklist) signals in one workflow. Suped's DMARC monitoring supports source verification and policy changes using aggregate reports. Compare reported authentication failures with provider-specific SMTP logs; reporting coverage depends on which receivers send reports. Standard DMARC aggregate reporting does not establish inbox placement.
DMARC record detail view showing SPF, DKIM, DMARC, rDNS diagnostics, and DNS records
A practical Suped workflow
- Add domains: Add the brand domain and any China-specific sending subdomains before campaign setup.
- Verify senders: Confirm which systems send transactional, lifecycle, support, and marketing email.
- Fix gaps: Resolve SPF lookup-limit errors, missing DKIM records, and DMARC domain-matching failures.
- Watch alerts: Review authentication and DNS alerts alongside China campaign bounce logs and local inbox tests.
Content, language, and rendering rules
Content filtering is the part that surprises many senders. A message that works in North America or Europe can run into China-specific filtering because of language quality, generic greetings such as "Dear Friend," subject wording, tracked links, image-heavy design, tiny fonts, or topics that trigger local review systems. Do not send translated copy until a fluent local reviewer has checked the meaning, tone, legal claims, and calls to action. Keep commercial subjects concise, include the required 广告 or AD label, and check the complete subject in local mobile previews.
Chinese character encoding also matters. Use UTF-8 MIME encoding for message content and standards-compliant encoding for subject lines and display names. Your sending system, mail server, template editor, database, CSV import process, merge tags, subject lines, unsubscribe page, and analytics exports need to preserve simplified Chinese characters correctly. Broken encoding creates strange characters in inboxes, malformed links, broken personalization, and a poor recipient experience.
Common global email
- Language: One English template is reused across several regions.
- Links: Tracking and redirects are added to every call to action.
- Design: Large images and complex layouts are reused without checking local webmail and mobile clients.
- Volume: The campaign sends to a full country segment in one day.
China-ready email
- Language: Simplified Chinese copy is reviewed by a fluent local reviewer.
- Links: URLs are kept direct, necessary, and tested for access from China.
- Design: HTML is simple, mobile friendly, and readable when images are blocked.
- Volume: Segments are small, sequenced, and adjusted by provider response.
China email campaign checks: consent, AD labels, simplified Chinese, direct links, and simple HTML.
Example China engagement segments
Illustrative test cohorts; adjust the windows using campaign cadence and confirmed account activity.
First test segment
0-30 days
Recent purchase, login, reply, or confirmed human click.
Careful expansion
31-90 days
Older confirmed activity; test separately before increasing volume.
Review before expansion
Repeated low response
Check low response against account activity; missing opens do not prove abandonment.
For an initial China test, use a responsive layout around 600 pixels wide and readable body text around 16 pixels. Keep essential information in live text, with useful image alt text. Use a table-based layout with inline CSS and a plain-text alternative, then test local webmail and mobile clients. Avoid JavaScript and remove redirects or external assets that fail mainland access tests. Check rendering against China delivery guidance and your own test results; layout measurements are design starting points.
Sending volume, bounces, and provider behavior
The delivery pattern into China is often slower and less transparent than senders expect. A 4xx SMTP response, including 451, is temporary: keep the message queued and retry with backoff. A 5xx response is permanent for that attempt: read the full response before deciding whether to suppress the address, because a policy rejection does not prove the mailbox is invalid. Follow standard SMTP reply handling and adjust pacing by provider.
Start by splitting China traffic by mailbox provider. QQ Mail and NetEase deserve separate dashboards because their patterns differ. For provider-specific issues, use the QQ.com delivery guide, and classify NetEase responses by the exact SMTP text before deciding whether to retry, slow down, pause, or suppress.
- QQ Mail: Watch for throttling and policy blocks, then adjust pacing using full SMTP responses and engagement data.
- NetEase: Group the NetEase mailbox domains 163.com, 126.com, yeah.net, and 188.com together; parse complete responses and reduce retry pressure.
- Sina and Sohu: Keep copy clean, links direct, and volume increases conservative.
- Other local domains: Map 139.com, 189.cn, 263.com, and other recurring domains instead of leaving them in an unknown bucket.
- Corporate domains: Expect mixed filtering because local gateways and corporate security controls vary.
When a blocklist or blacklist appears
A provider policy block and a public blocklist (blacklist) listing require different investigations. Read the SMTP response, identify any named list, and check whether the issue is tied to a sending IP, domain, redirect domain, or shared infrastructure. Follow any documented expiry or removal process and fix the cause before resuming volume. Suped's blocklist monitoring monitors supported public lists; use provider logs to investigate internal filtering decisions.
China email troubleshooting flow covering provider segmentation, bounces, authentication, content, sending volume, and seed tests.
Send a real preflight message before a production launch and inspect headers, authentication, rendering, links, and spam signals with the email tester. Use it to catch broken basics, then check real Chinese mailboxes for folder placement and arrival time before increasing volume.
Email tester
Send a real email to this address. Suped shows a results button when the test is ready.
?/43tests passed
Test inbox placement with Chinese mailbox providers
A final 250 response after message data means the receiving server accepted responsibility for the message. It does not confirm that the message reached the inbox. This distinction follows SMTP acceptance semantics; verify folder placement in real local mailboxes.
- Use controlled seed accounts on QQ Mail, 163.com, and 126.com, plus the providers used by your actual audience. Send through the same domain and IP pool as the campaign.
- Record send time, final SMTP response, and arrival time. Check the inbox and spam folder in webmail and a mobile client; retain message headers for authentication checks.
- Test landing pages and every tracking redirect on a normal mainland China connection, including the unsubscribe page. Network restrictions affecting a URL do not establish why an SMTP delivery failed.
- Repeat small tests across China Standard Time (UTC+8) sending windows and after material template or infrastructure changes. Compare results with an engaged recipient segment before expanding.
Seed results describe those accounts at that time. Combine them with provider-specific bounce logs and confirmed recipient activity; neither open tracking nor DMARC reports alone measures inbox placement.
Operational checklist for China campaigns
A practical China email program uses a controlled rollout. Do not test several major variables in the first high-volume send. Isolate variables so that a poor result can be explained and fixed.
- Map providers: Group recipients by QQ Mail, NetEase (including 163.com, 126.com, yeah.net, and 188.com), Sina, Sohu, other local providers, corporate domains, and unknown domains.
- Separate streams: Use different From addresses or subdomains for transactional and marketing mail.
- Use consent: Start marketing tests with explicit opt-ins and recent confirmed activity; set the lookback period to match campaign cadence.
- Review content: Check restricted topics, claims, localization quality, font sizes, and subject labels.
- Test links: Check landing pages, tracking redirects, and the unsubscribe page on mainland connections before launch.
- Throttle slowly: Ramp by provider and stop increases when deferrals or complaints rise. Set daily volume and connection concurrency from observed responses; providers do not share a universal safe limit.
- Read bounces: Classify temporary failures, policy blocks, bad recipients, and content-related rejections.
- Suppress fast: Suppress confirmed invalid addresses and marketing opt-outs promptly. Review inactive segments using campaign cadence and account activity before sending again.
Before launch
- DNS: Check SPF, DKIM, DMARC, the bounce-return domain's mail handling, and sending-IP reverse DNS.
- List: Use recent and consented recipients with clear engagement.
- Copy: Review the commercial label and simplified Chinese copy, including any restricted topics.
- Rendering: The message works on mobile and still reads with images blocked.
After launch
- Bounces: Temporary and permanent failures are separated by provider.
- Engagement: Review low response alongside confirmed human clicks and account activity before expanding.
- Reputation: Domain and IP listing checks are reviewed daily during ramp-up.
- Fixes: One variable changes at a time so the next result is meaningful.
If China delivery is business-critical and repeated tests show problems, assess a local specialist or relay using the same messages and recipient-provider mix. Compare acceptance, arrival time, and folder placement before changing routes. For a local route, check applicable licensing, data access, retention, and PIPL duties. Sending to Chinese recipients alone does not require every foreign sender to operate a mainland relay or obtain a local email-service licence. The MIIT email-service FAQ defines domestic service by the server's mainland location.
When to expand a China rollout
Expand after real-mailbox tests and provider-specific logs show consistent acceptance without rising deferrals or complaints. Suped's DMARC and email authentication platform helps check reported sending sources, authentication failures, DNS changes, and supported blocklist or blacklist listings while the campaign team manages consent, localization, privacy duties, and provider-specific pacing.
The rule of thumb
Before expanding, confirm commercial consent and subject labels, working refusal contacts, valid authentication, readable local-language content, and accessible links in real mailbox tests.
