diff --git a/.changeset/shaggy-peaches-swim.md b/.changeset/shaggy-peaches-swim.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3bc46e51b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/shaggy-peaches-swim.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@commercetools-uikit/i18n': patch
+---
+
+Fix regression of removing the `zh-CN.json` file. Even though we don't support chinese locale anymore, we still need to keep the file (as empty) for backwards compatibility with Application Kit packages version `<22.36.0` as they still expect the file to be defined.
diff --git a/packages/i18n/data/zh-CN.json b/packages/i18n/data/zh-CN.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0967ef424b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/i18n/data/zh-CN.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{}