ICANN plans to open satellite office in China

Monday's announcement comes as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers holds its spring meeting in Beijing this week. ICANN bills the office as an "engagement center," a way to stay in closer contact with Internet users and policy makers.

ICANN has its headquarters in Los Angeles and plans hubs in Singapore and Istanbul by mid-2013 to cover the world's time zones. The Beijing center would report to the hubs. No date was given for its completion.

ICANN is in the midst of increasing the number of domain name suffixes to rival ".com" and others. It has tentatively approved nearly 100, including several using Chinese characters.