Analysis
Based on its discussions with various foreign NGOs (and with much-appreciated assistance from several experts), The China NGO Project has created the following flowchart to help show the differences between registering for a representative office and filing for a temporary activity. In particular, we wish to highlight that when filing for temporary activities, Chinese Partner Units may have their own external supervisory units that have to grant approval before the Partner can submit the filing...Read more
After a slow start, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and its provincial Public Security Bureaus (PSBs) seem to be finding their stride in implementing the Foreign NGO Law with the rate of registering representative offices and filing “temporary activities” quickening over the last few months. As of August 22, the MPS Overseas NGO Office website shows a total of 185 representative offices, of which around 88 (48 percent) were registered just in the last...Read more
Many foreign NGOs working in China view its newly adopted Law on the Management of Foreign NGOs as a threat to their work and say the law may force their organizations to leave the country. Yet, at least for the work I am familiar with—namely, the promotion of human rights and rule of law—the law might ultimately prove beneficial. It could encourage NGOs to rethink current strategies and embrace new ones. In particular, it might...Read more
Comparing Recent NGO Laws in Russia and China
Do Russia’s Laws Foreshadow China’s Future?
Over the last several years, Russia and China have developed strikingly parallel laws on the management of foreign NGOs and foreign support of domestic civil society. While regular visitors to this site are familiar with the 2017 Foreign NGO Law in China, they may be less aware of two similar laws in Russia: the 2012 law on “foreign agents” and 2015 law on “undesirable” organizations.Briefly, the 2012 Russian law requires any domestic NGO that receives...Read more
Half a year after China’s new law regarding foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) went into effect, many questions remain about the law’s implementation across different regions of China and across different fields of work. To get a better sense of how implementation is proceeding on these fronts, The China NGO Project has compiled and analyzed data released by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) Foreign NGO Management Office regarding representative office registration and temporary activity filings...Read more