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December 28, 2018

Two Temporary Activities Removed from Ministry of Public Security Database

The NGO Project has discovered that two temporary activities, previously listed on the Ministry of Public Security’s website, have been removed. The website does not provide any explanation for or recognition of this change.

The first of these temporary activities was listed as “Capacity-Building Training for Guangzhou-Area AIDS Organizations” (“广州地区艾滋病组织能力建设培训”), conducted by Asia Catalyst (亚洲促进会) in coordination with Chinese Partner Unit (CPU) Yuexiu District Zhitong Public Welfare Service Center (广州市越秀区智同公益服务中心). The listing indicated the activity was to run from July 2018 to March 2019. Yet, based on The China NGO Project records, the listing disappeared from the MPS website sometime between June 1 and June 6, 2018 (it had initially appeared on the website sometime between May 18 and May 31). Asia Catalyst told The China NGO Project that the activity in question did not take place, or that if the CPU did carry out the activity, it did so with another partner and Asia Catalyst was not involved.

The second activity was listed as “Anti-Domestic Violence Law Conference” (“反家庭暴力法研讨会”), held by the American Bar Association (ABA) (美国律师协会) in partnership with CPU China Legal Exchange Center (中国法学学术交流中心). An article on a local Chinese court website confirms that the conference did occur in Beijing in April 2018. The ABA activity listing appeared on the MPS website sometime between April 18 and 27 and dropped off sometime between July 2 and July 9. The timing of the disappearance happens to coincide with the third anniversary of the “709” crackdown on Chinese lawyers, though it is unclear if this is in any way related to the activity listing disappearing from the MPS website. The ABA released a statement on the anniversary of the crackdown, but not until July 13, after the activity had already been deleted from the MPS database.

As The China NGO Project has previously written, older entries in the MPS database are sometimes altered, likely to reflect corrected or updated information. As the MPS does not explicitly note these changes, The China NGO Project only discovers them when we make a separate effort to reconcile our data with the MPS data. The China NGO Project has only observed one other temporary activity’s disappearance from the MPS website; based on the fact that the name of the foreign NGO in question does not turn up any search results online, and that the Hebei province Public Security Bureau was purportedly the CPU for the activity (Public Security Bureaus do not typically act as CPUs), The China NGO Project judges that this was likely a test entry and does not represent an actual or attempted temporary activity filing.

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