Analysis

 

On May 28, China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) issued a much-anticipated Decision on preservation of national security in Hong Kong. The key paragraph in the short document authorized the NPC’s Standing Committee to “draft laws related to . . . the preservation of national security.” Unsurprisingly, the decision occasioned furious speculation on the ways that the new law, which is expected to be promulgated soon, might criminalize the exercise of basic rights, including the right...Read more
As the COVID-19 epidemic continues in China, so do the efforts of civil society organizations and concerned citizens to mitigate the harm. In the official approach to managing their involvement, there have been clumsy force-of-habit measures from the state, controversies over how donations are collected and deployed, and punishments for cadres-cum-charity leaders. Early government attempts to monopolize the collection and deployment of donated money and materials have caused critical bottlenecks, and weak coordination among departments...Read more
Much of the European and American debate about China’s Foreign NGO Law has revolved around the trade-offs and opportunities associated with continuing activities in mainland China. However, the issues internationally operating NGOs face are far bigger than that. Chinese investors are influential in virtually every country and region of the Global South, the Chinese government has a pivotal role in climate diplomacy, and China’s influence is growing in the UN system and wherever else the...Read more

‘The New Normal’ for Foreign NGOs in 2020

The China NGO Project has, since its inception, been heavily focused on Chinese government-provided data as a means to understand the environment for foreign NGOs there. However, taking stock of the three years that the Foreign NGO Law has been in effect, it is clear that simply totting up the most recent registration and filing figures won’t give us an adequate picture of what is really happening on the ground in China.Read more
17 anonymized case studies documenting the “intended and unintended consequences” of the Foreign NGO Law, produced by The Asia Research Institute at the University of Nottingham. The case studies are based on interviews conducted with leaders and employees of 24 organizations in Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy.Read more