Analysis
The advent of the Foreign NGO Law in January left many wondering what it portended for foreign NGOs’ work China. How many foreign NGOs would be able to register? Where in the mainland would they be able to operate? And how might the new registration and filing processes change the kind of work foreign NGOs would be able to carry out legally?Read more
Worries about the future of civil society organizations in China are limited to only a handful of European countries. Others put their faith in established informal ties or have subscribed to Chinese understandings of “people-to-people exchanges,” which are unlikely to be affected by restrictions on non-governmental organizations.Read more
Neither the 19th Party Congress political report (issued in October 2017) nor the 18th Party Congress political report (issued in November 2012) actually use the term “non-governmental organization” (非政府组织), nor do they specifically address international NGOs. Instead, they use the phrase “social organization” (社会组织), the de rigueur official term that encompasses several more specific types of domestic non-profit registrations: social groups (社会团体), private non-enterprises (民办非企业单位), and foundations (基金会). The reports’ discussion of social organizations, however,...Read more
On November 28, Taiwanese NGO activist Lee Ming-che was sentenced to five years in prison for “subverting state power.” A mainland Chinese citizen, Peng Yuhua, whom Lee’s family says they had not heard of before the trial, was tried with him and sentenced to seven years for the same crime. This follows Lee’s September trial in Hunan province, webcast live, during which he confessed to the charges and claimed he was misled by biased Western...Read more
Though most Chinese Partner Units (CPUs) working with foreign NGOs have only filed for one temporary activity, approximately 18% of CPUs have filed for multiple temporary activities since the beginning of the year. Below, we list the CPUs that have filed for four or more temporary activities in 2017, according to Ministry of Public Security data covering through the end of October, as well as the foreign NGOs with which they worked.Read more