Foreign NGO Law explained
AustCham organized a joint chamber event on China’s New Foreign NGO Law – “Everything that Corporate Foundations, CSR Departments and NGOs Need to Know”. It was co-hosted by AustCham Beijing, the British Chamber and the French Chamber.
Speakers were Wang Liwei, CEO China Development Foundation; Clare Pearson, International Development Director, Asia, DLA Piper (and Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China); Josh Freedman, Social Policy Research Manager, China Policy.
It was followed by Q&A.
I took place in the AustCham Beijing offices (U-Town Office Building).
The impact of the new law
That event was one of the first to point at the myriad of problems and questions raised by the new law that will take effect on 1 January 2017.
Being deeply involved in the Rotary operations in China I have been following very closely the whole story of that law as well as for the new China Charity Law (took effect on 1 September 2016). There is too much to be said to report here. My point is that many NGOs still underestimate the impact it will have on their operations, forcing many to close.
Contrary to what many think, we are not here worried about NGOs that operate in sensitive areas such as politics, religion, human rights, democracy and so on, being in a covert way or none.
The concern is for NGOs that do a lot of charity, are involved in improving the lives of many Chinese and alike. Many of those will have to close down operations as it looks like.
The outlook
I am still pretty concerned on what will happen. It is at any rate one more sign of China closing its doors, never mind the naïve who don’t see it or simply don’t understand what is at stake. China very much follows Russia for this matter.
How will Rotary survive this in China? It might be classified as a “Social Organization”, an entity to be under the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and being managed with its own law. The Foreign NGO Law appoints the Public Security organs as the supervisory party. Good luck with that.
See also this telling commentary from the SCMP:
22 August 2016 – “China tightens grip over social groups through greater Communist Party presence”
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2007359/china-tightens-grip-over-social-groups-through-greater