Foreign NGO Law

The PSB stated that with the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, and the announcement of the “Guangdong-Macau Greater Bay Area Development Plan Outline,” exchange and cooperation between Macau and Guangdong, including foreign NGO...

Per information provided at a meeting between Ministry of Public Security (MPS) representatives and foreign diplomats in 2016, a foreign NGO’s representative office may have activities in multiple locations as long as the geographic scope of its...

Though the Ministry of Public Security does not appear to have issued official written guidance on this point, the registrations of multiple foreign NGO representative offices show that groups registered at the provincial level can indeed work...

Yes. Guidance provided by Beijing Normal University’s Charity Law Center states that foreign NGOs wishing to donate funds to an activity or program taking place in China—even one held by another foreign NGO—must do so through a temporary activity...

Per information provided at a meeting between Ministry of Public Security (MPS) representatives and foreign diplomats in 2016, a foreign NGO that works in multiple sectors (for example, environment and education) should identify the “main” sector of...

The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) recently filed a temporary activity titled “Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Research Project, and Gender and Human Rights Teachers’ Program.” This marks the fourth...

Recently, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office issued a registration certificate for Green-Net’s (Japan) representative office in Inner Mongolia. Green-Net’s chief representative introduced...

Opening ceremonies for the “2019 International Youth Prevention of Desertification Project” took place in Dalad banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region’s Erdos city. The event was co-sponsored by the Korean-Chinese Culture Youth Association (...

A list of successfully registered NGOs is available here (in Chinese) on the Ministry of Public Security’s main NGO website. The China NGO Project also maintains a map with information about approved NGOs, including their location of registration,...

On April 29, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) published an updated list of approved Professional Supervisory Units (PSUs) and fields of activity for foreign NGOs working in China. This is the MPS’ first formal update to the original PSU list,...

The People’s Republic of China’s (P.R.C.’s) most authoritative media outlet, The People’s Daily, published an article on April 19 describing two foreign NGOs as having posed threats to “political security” in recent years. The article, entitled “...

According to information available on the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) website, the North Korea International Trade Promotion Council successfully registered a representative office in Dalian city, Liaoning province on April 11. This is the...

The Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs released its “Method for Rewarding the Masses for Reporting Illegal Religious Activities,” which details how city officials can reward Guangzhou residents for reporting illegal religious...

Recently, the Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Small Group Office for Helping Develop Border Areas presented a banner to the Guizhou Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office, expressing their gratitude for the office’s...

March 20, 2019:The Tianjin Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office recently held an informal discussion at the Japan Kobe International Cooperation and Exchange Center in Tianjin to address the promotion of friendly exchange...

Data from China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) shows a recent uptick in the number of religion-related temporary activities organized by foreign NGOs that have received government approval. The Hong Kong-based CWM/Nethersole Fund (世界传到会/那打素基金)...

The Fujian Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office, along with the Fujian Digital Department, has sped up the groundwork for establishing a “Digital Fujian.” This process of digitization includes the transition to digital...

Yesterday, the U.S.-based Open Source Hardware Association announced on its website that it had canceled plans to hold its annual summit in Shenzhen, in large part due to difficulties complying with China’s Foreign NGO Law.

The Shandong PSB Foreign NGO Management Office recently publicized the two-year anniversary of the Foreign NGO Law. Carrying along publicity materials, the provincial PSB visited the nine foreign NGOs registered in Shandong. The Dezhou, Weihai,...

Are foreign NGOs able to use temporary activity filings—which are officially only allowed to last a maximum of one year—to run longer-term grants or programs? Is it possible for international organizations to file year after year for the same...

Recently, the Jiangsu Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Department combined the two-year anniversary of the Foreign NGO Law with “110 Publicity Day” to actively promote the Law. [110 is China’s emergency police number.] The...

Bertram Lang and Heike Holbig recently published an overview of the Foreign NGO Law’s effect on Europe-based non-profits, titled “Civil Society Work in China: Trade-Offs and Opportunities for European NGOs.” Though the article is primarily focused...

The Tibet PSB promotes the Foreign NGO Law on the streets of Lhasa, while Jiangxi and Tianjin PSBs visit universities and other government agencies to talk about schools' cooperation with foreign NGOs.

The China NGO Project has just completed an analysis of representative office registrations and temporary activity filings during the first two years of Foreign NGO Law implementation. While office registrations have slowed, the number of...

As we greet 2019, we have now seen two full years of Foreign NGO Law implementation in China. If foreign NGOs thought that 2017 had a “crossing the river by feeling for stones” sense to it, 2018 was the year that registration and filing processes...

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.

Recently, the Guangdong Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office received an award for its innovative work in promoting the law, the Jiangsu PSB Foreign NGO Management office held a conference for foreign NGO representative offices...

More than a week after the detention of two Canadian citizens, we know very little about the nature of the charges against them. Of particular concern to the foreign NGO community is the detention of Michael Kovrig, an employee of the non-profit...

On Monday night, Chinese authorities detained Michael Kovrig of the Brussels-based non-profit International Crisis Group (ICG) in Beijing. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested—though did not definitively state—that Kovrig may have...

November 16, 2018:Recently, the Fujian Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office issued a registration certificate to BSK International (Germany). The PSB congratulated BSK on their newly-registered Xiamen representative office,...

Several of the recommendations made during the UN Human Rights Council’s recent Universal Periodic Review of China’s human rights record pertain to civil society and NGOs. Bin Xu, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Emory University,...

U.S.-based non-profit Give2Asia hosted a webinar in October on foreign grant-making in China. University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mark Sidel joined Give2Asia’s Adam King to discuss the state of play nearly two years after the Foreign NGO Law went into...

According to information on the Ministry of Public Security website, the Japan External Trade Organization (日本贸易振兴机构, JETRO) de-registered its representative office in Guangzhou, as of June 29, 2018. Until de-registering, it was permitted to operate...

The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD) registered its third office in China on November 9, according to Ministry of Public Security information, even though Chinese authorities forced a student studying...

Berthold Kuhn of Freie Universitat Berlin has published a new paper looking at “Changing Spaces for Civil Society Organisations in China.” This framework explicitly pushes back against the notion that civil society space is uniformly shrinking,...

Today, the Ministry of Public Security WeChat Account posted information and graphics about the number of representative offices registered and the number of temporary activities filed between January 2017 and the end of September 2018. A partial...

According to information from the MInistry of Public Security’s website, a new Professional Supervisory Unit (PSU) became a foreign NGO sponsor last month. The Guangdong Youth Federation, a provincial-level branch of the All-China Youth Federation,...

Recently, the chairman of Barry & Martin’s Trust (United Kingdom) visited the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Sixth People’s Hospital to observe an ongoing cooperative program and to sign an additional cooperation agreement. The Xinjiang...

A new analysis piece looks at how the Foreign NGO Law has been applied to foreign NGOs working to facilitate international adoption. Jasmine I-Shin Su takes a look at what has changed in the foreign adoption process since the implementation of the...

The China NGO Project has posted representative office and temporary activity data for the month of September (with information available as of October 1). The pace at which representative offices are registered and at which new temporary activities...

China Development Brief (CDB) will hold a forum in Beijing on November 6 and 7, “China’s Overseas NGO Law Two Years On,” for foreign NGOs operating in China. The goal of the gathering is to “facilitate the effective operations of overseas NGOs under...

The Doing Good Index 2018, a benchmark study by the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS), collected data from more than 1,500 non-profit organizations across 15 Asian economies and mapped the environment for philanthropy and private...

Recently, the Jiangsu Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office held a ceremony to give a registration certificate to the China Cross-Strait Exchange Association (Taiwan). PSB representatives offered their congratulations and...

As reported by Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), David Missal, a German citizen and journalism student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, was forced to leave China last month after authorities refused to renew his visa. Missal was studying at Tsinghua...

The Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions recently published an official document listing foreign NGO management work under the rubric of “social stability and preventing enemy infiltration.” Given the timing, it is unlikely the document was fully...

In an official document dated late July, the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions, the city’s branch of the country’s official, Party-affiliated trade union, outlined the major themes of its work going forward, including preventing “enemy...

As reported by the South China Morning Post, the official Chinese media outlet Xinhua last week asserted that Hong Kong-based organization Worker Empowerment helped a Chinese NGO organize a labor strike in Shenzhen. Worker Empowerment denied the...

The General Administration of Sports has issued a notice regarding foreign NGOs conducting sports activities in China.The notice reiterates that sporting events held by international non-profits fall under the ambit of the Foreign NGO Law. Article 6...

In order to promote foreign NGOs’ and Chinese Partner Units’ (CPUs’) legal registration and filing, the Guangxi Public Security Bureau (PSB) recently rolled out “drop-in service.” This entails the PSB visiting relevant entities to publicize the law...

Chinese Partner Units (CPUs) are critical players in the temporary activity process. Not only are they often the on-the-ground implementers of a temporary activity, and their organizational structure, location, and capacity affect what activities...

When considering the impact of the Foreign NGO Law, we often think first of the foreign NGOs themselves—who they are, and where they’re able to gain approval to carry out work in China. Yet, for foreign NGOs carrying out temporary activities in...