Hacker News Reader

Comment by jeffbarr | Hacker News Reader

No, we already have AWS Regions in Beijing and Ningxia. Each region includes multiple Availability Zones (AZs).

Hey Jeff,

I get those mainland China regions are via your partners, and have a separate portal/account, etc. But why does creating a AWS China account require an ICP? I have no intention of serving/hosting content from there, I'm just looking for in-country compute. (To be fair, other US-based cloud providers like Azure have the same ICP-to-even-create-account requirement to access mainland China locations).

What is strange is I am able to use Alibaba Cloud, and spin up mainland China instances but didn't need an ICP as part of the account creation process. Why the difference with AWS China?

I did an Ask HN about experience with AWS China and got no bites...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17522491

Any insights are super appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I think it's a combination of CYA, government regulations, and simplifying operations for AWS. Without an ICP, you're not allowed any web presence in CN, which would require AWSCN to either modify services that are publicly available by default or not offering them. Instead, if they make an ICP a requirement, they have a defensible position with CN regulators, who really just want a throat to choke.

As AWSCN is reasonably far behind compared to Global regions, and they've already enough complexity just doing business in China, so I think it's completely reasonable the trade-off they've made or been forced to make here regarding ICP.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com