VeriSign in struggle with China over registration of Web add Country Watch: China1/9/2001; 2:41:03 PM 'The issue: Who has the right to register Chinese-language Internet addresses?'In November, VeriSign announced it would begin accepting Web addresses written in Chinese as well as Japanese and Korean.'The China Internet Network Information Center, the government agency that oversees the registry in China, quickly responded by unveiling a competing system. Officials quoted in state-run media called the system China's sole legal cyber-registry.'State-run newspapers, ever given to nationalistic passions, stoked the controversy. They proclaimed that the Chinese language belonged to China and that VeriSign was trampling on Chinese sovereignty.'There was even talk in the press of blocking access in China to addresses using VeriSign's system, as Beijing does now for Web sites of some foreign media and critics of communist rule.'That raised the prospect of China cutting itself off from the rest of cyberspace.'