What Future for International NGOs in China?

A ChinaFile Conversation

By Katherine Wilhelm, Shawn Shieh & more on November 24, 2021

Nearly five years have passed since China implemented its Foreign NGO Law, imposing a host of new restrictions on the activities of international non-profit groups. What kind of responsibility do non-government organizations bear for sustaining international exchange with China at a time when many governments are finding relations with Beijing increasingly contentious? Are the increased administrative burdens the Foreign NGO law imposes worth the benefits of remaining in China? How much should organizations compromise their missions to keep operations in China alive

Nicola Macbean

on November 16, 2021

Nicola Macbean is the Executive Director of The Rights Practice, a UK-based NGO she founded in 2002 with the original aim of building local capacity in China to put human rights into practice. Macbean has worked in the field of international exchange and cooperation with China for over 30 years, focusing on criminal justice reforms and human rights. She was previously Director of the Great Britain-China Centre and has been a consultant to the UN and DFID.

After receiving a degree in Social Anthropology, Macbean studied Chinese at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, in Taipei, and at Shanghai’s Fudan University. She also has degrees in Education and Human Rights Law.

Elizabeth Knup

on November 11, 2021

Elizabeth Knup is the regional director for China at the Ford Foundation. She oversees the foundation’s grantmaking and programming related to China from the foundation’s office in Beijing. Prior to joining Ford in 2013, she served simultaneously as Chief Representative of Pearson PLC, one of the world’s foremost education and publishing companies, and as President of Pearson Education in China

Having dedicated her career to developing stronger ties between China and the rest of the world in the education, nonprofit, and business sectors, Knup started out at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations where, from 1988-1998, she facilitated dialogue and exchange focused on a range of issues central to the U.S.-China relationship. In 1998, she moved to Nanjing and served as the American co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, overseeing the establishment of the center’s Institute for International Relations and a summer immersion Chinese language program. Later, she joined Kamsky Associates, a business strategy and investment advisory firm in Beijing, as Managing Director.

Knup is on the board of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She has served as a member of the board of numerous nonprofits including the Lingnan Foundation, the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the American Chamber of Commerce in the People’s Republic of China, and two Chinese NGOs: the Capacity Building Assessment Center (CBAC) and Global Environment Institute (GEI).

Knup has a Master’s degree from the University of Michigan’s Center for Chinese Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Middlebury College.

Katherine Wilhelm

on November 11, 2021

Katherine Wilhelm is Executive Director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute and an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. She is an expert on China’s legal system, public interest law organizations, and civil society. She joined USALI in August 2019 after returning from nearly three decades of residence in Asia, where she split her career between law and journalism. Most recently, she was the legal program officer at the Ford Foundation’s China office, where she funded Chinese legal advocacy NGOs and university-based legal research and education programs. Before that, she directed the Beijing office of Yale Law School’s China Law Center. Wilhelm also practiced corporate law in the Beijing office of a leading U.S. law firm. Before beginning her career in law, she reported for The Associated Press from Beijing, Hong Kong, and Hanoi, and for the Far Eastern Economic Review from Hong Kong and Shanghai. Her work has been published in leading newspapers around the world. She was a John S. Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford University in 1996-1997. She holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, a Master’s degree in East Asian studies from Harvard University, a Master’s in journalism from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s degree in history from Niagara University.

Anthony J. Spires

on November 11, 2021

Anthony J. Spires is Deputy Director of The University of Melbourne’s Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies. He was previously Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Social Innovation Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the development of civil society in China, including philanthropy, governmental regulation, and the cultures of non-profit organizations. He has published widely in leading journals, including The China Journal, China Quarterly, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and The American Journal of Sociology. A graduate of Occidental College, Spires holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University.

When Will China Get off Coal?

A ChinaFile Conversation

By Lauri Myllyvirta, Alex Wang & more on November 8, 2021

As China looks to meet its energy demands, there has been a rush for coal, with prices hitting record highs in October. Despite pledges by Beijing to pull back from fossil fuels, the power crisis has exposed shortfalls in the country’s ability to meet its manufacturing needs. Can China ever hope to meet its energy needs without relying on dangerous fossil fuels? What are the implications for the global effort to combat climate change?

Ilaria Mazzocco

on November 4, 2021

Ilaria Mazzocco is a fellow with the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS, she was a senior research associate at the Paulson Institute, where she led research on Chinese climate and energy policy for Macropolo, the institute’s think tank. She holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where her dissertation investigated Chinese industrial policy by focusing on electric vehicle promotion efforts and the role of local governments. She also holds Master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins SAIS and Central European University, as well as a Bachelor’s degree from Bard College.

Philip Andrews-Speed

on November 2, 2021

Philip Andrews-Speed is a Senior Principal Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore. He has worked in the field of energy and resources for 40 years, starting his career as a mineral and oil exploration geologist before moving into the field of energy and resource governance. His main research interest has been the political economy of the low-carbon energy transition. China has been a particular focus for his research, but in recent years he has been more deeply engaged with energy challenges in Southeast Asia. He is currently leading a research project on the governance of nuclear safety. His latest book, with Sufang Zhang, is China as a Global Clean Energy Champion: Lifting the Veil (Palgrave, 2019).