China has over a billion internet users, making it the largest and fastest-growing online market in the world. More global companies are expanding into China, all running into the same challenge of making their websites functional in the region.

If you’re using WordPress, you may assume your site will work just as it does everywhere else. However, China is a different matter.

So, how can you launch your WordPress site successfully in China?

TL;DR: WordPress websites are often slow or broken when accessed from China due to code and infrastructure incompatibilities, but with the right optimizations, they can perform as smoothly as they do globally.

WordPress powers over 43% of all websites worldwide (more than 835 million), making it the go-to platform for bloggers, businesses, and e-commerce stores alike. Its vast plugin library makes it a powerful choice for website creation. However, the same plugins and third-party resources that enhance WordPress globally often lead to performance issues in China.

Does WordPress work in China?

WordPress is available in China and it is possible to build a WordPress website in China on the software available on WordPress.org. However, WordPress websites face significant performance challenges operating in China. In fact, around 93% of WordPress sites are slow or broken in China. On average, WordPress sites fail to deliver 44% of their resources in China due to packet loss.

Unfortunately, launching a WordPress site in China isn’t as simple as hitting “publish”. You’ll need to address specific performance and regulatory challenges to ensure your site functions as expected for users in China.

Challenges of using WordPress in China

There are two primary reasons why WordPress sites don’t perform well in China:

Code-based incompatibilities

Just like Adobe Experience Manager, Webflow, and other website building tools, WordPress sites often use third-party resources—such as Google Fonts, YouTube embeds, or social media plugins—which are either blocked or load extremely slowly in China.

WordPress’s plugin ecosystem is one of its greatest strengths, but it’s also one of the biggest obstacles when launching in China as popular plugins like, Yoast, Wordfence or WP Rocket, may rely on external resources. These resources create bottlenecks in the rendering process as browsers attempt to load elements that are either inaccessible or slow to fetch.

Infrastructure-based limitations 

WordPress relies on global CDNs to deliver content, but these CDNs (e.g., Cloudflare) aren’t optimized for China, leading to significant delays in page loading. For WordPress sites that rely on CDNs for static content (e.g., CSS, JS, images), this results in a Page Complete metric that’s often far slower than what you would see in the U.S. or Europe.

These challenges are not unique to WordPress and also affect other CMS platforms like Shopify and Magento.

How to successfully launch your WordPress site in China

Despite these challenges, launching a WordPress site in China is entirely possible. With the right strategies and tools, you can ensure that your site loads quickly and functions properly for Chinese users.

Here are 4 suggestions to help you launch your WordPress site in China:

1. Test your site’s performance

Before fully launching your WordPress site in China, it’s a smart idea to test its performance from inside the country. Tools like Chinafy’s Visual Speed Test can help you compare how your site loads in China versus other global locations, allowing you to see firsthand what your users experience. Along with a visual showing you how your site appears in China versus elsewhere in the world, you’ll see metrics including:

Loading time

Page size

Number of third-party domains

Test your site with our Visual Speed Test

2. Optimize your WordPress site for China with Chinafy

The simplest and most efficient way to launch your WordPress site in China is by using Chinafy.

Chinafy works by identifying and replacing resources that don’t work in China, optimizing your site’s performance without requiring a complete rebuild or hosting change.

Here’s how it works:

Chinafy generates a version of your site without changing or affecting your existing one.

It then scans your site to identify blocked or slow resources, such as Yoast SEO, WP Rocket, Shopify Plus, Zendesk, or third-party scripts.

Next, Chinafy replaces blocked resources with China-friendly alternatives, or removes elements that cannot be optimized.

Chinafy uses a combination of near-China CDNs and advanced resource management to ensure that your site loads quickly and fully, 4.5x faster on average than unoptimized WordPress sites.

Content is synced from your original site to your Chinafy site and then (after a small change to your DNS or CDN settings), traffic coming from a China IP address will be re-routed to the Chinafy version while all other visitors get sent to the original site.

With Chinafy, you can maintain a single global WordPress site while offering a seamless user experience in China—without the need for a separate local version.

3. Minimize third-party plugins

When launching your WordPress site in China, you may want to audit the plugins you’re using and minimize the use of any blocked domains like Google.

It’s important to note, however, that if your website also serves website visitors outside of China, you won’t want to optimize for China at the expense of global user experience.

There are hundreds of third-party resources that are slow or blocked in China, many of which are subject to changes based on the evolution of China’s internet ecosystem. As a starting point, when you’re auditing your plugins, you can keep an eye out for those that rely on known external resources—like maps, videos, or social media feeds—and see whether these can be replaced or removed.

For example, if you’re only targeting users in China, you could:

Replace Google Maps with China-based map services like Baidu Maps.

Convert video content hosted on YouTube or Vimeo to a China-friendly player like Youku or Bilibili.

As there are so many resources that could be affecting your web performance, manually modifying obvious third-party services like Google will not resolve all your speed and functionality issues.

If you have global site visitors, using Chinafy is a solution that enables you to optimize your third-party resources for users accessing your website from China while leaving your global site untouched.

4. Consider onshore hosting (optional)

Another option is to host your WordPress site directly in China. This involves manual development work, setting up an ICP license, obtaining a PSB filing, and using a China-approved hosting provider. However, this process is time-consuming and expensive, typically taking 6–12 months and involving significant regulatory requirements.

Launching a WordPress site that is accessible for visitors in China requires more than just hitting ‘publish’. Without addressing performance challenges associated with code and infrastructure incompatibilities, your site may end up broken or inaccessible for users in China.

By using tools like Chinafy, you can get your WordPress site running fast, fully, and without the need for a separate local site.

Ready to launch your WordPress site in China? Start with Chinafy’s Visual Speed Test to see how your site performs in China, or contact us to discover how we can specifically help you.