The Chinese government has announced plans to create three
new country-code domains in a move that looks like the
creation of an alternate root. In addition to dot-cn, the government will create Chinese character versions of dot-china, dot-net and dot-com. An article notes that with the change, Chinese Internet users "don't have to surf the Web via the servers under the management of ICANN
http://english.people.com.cn/200602/28/eng20060228_246712.html