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<\/a>\nFREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND LOVE. GONGMENG\u2019S LOGO.<\/p>\n
The dilemma of public interest litigation Chinese environmental NGOs face is a reflection of what Chinese civil society looks like today. According to available statistics, China has more than half a million NGOs that are registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs. However, a significant number of these are semi- or quasi-official organizations, some of which indeed only parade with an NGO front in order to qualify for government funding. The vast majority of the small number of independent civil society groups work in areas that are not considered politically sensitive, such as charity, environmental protection and the rights of women and children. In addition, China has another 1.5 million civil society groups that are not formally registered. These groups are likely to meet with pressures from the government if they venture into politically sensitive areas such as worker rights, the rule of law, or the rights of HIV patients [infected through government-sanctioned malfeasance].<\/p>\n
Deteriorating Conditions for Independent Civil Society Groups<\/p>\n
According to the New York Times, China\u2019s independent civil society groups have \u201c\u2026long struggled to survive inside China\u2019s ill-defined, shifting margins of official tolerance.\u201d However, this sliver of margin for NGOs is shrinking further. Within the last several months, the Chinese government has targeted many NGOs.<\/p>\n
Chinese human rights lawyer and former member of Open Constitution Initiative (Gongmeng, \u516c\u76df), Teng Biao, said that since Xi Jinping assumed power, the environment for independent NGOs has deteriorated. \u201cGroups that used to be able to do things, such as the Transition Institute (\u4f20\u77e5\u884c) and Liren rural libraries (\u7acb\u4eba\u56fe\u4e66\u9986) that were not considered too sensitive, have now been shut down. A lot of the people in charge of the groups were arrested and sentenced. The government\u2019s controls on funding sources, as well as its ideological control, are clearly tightening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In May 2013, the General Office of the Communist Party Central Committee issued, for internal circulation, the \u201cReport on the Current Status in the Area of Ideology,\u201d known as \u201cSeven Don\u2019t\u201d for short, in which Party members are asked to wage a struggle against \u201cdangerous\u201d Western values. \u201cDo not mention civil society\u201d ranks third among the seven forbidden topics.<\/p>\n
Xia Ming, a professor of political science at CUNY, said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with Xi Jinping at its center, sees ideas about civil society and \u201csmall government, big society,\u201d promoted by the West, as two prominent and gigantic traps Western nations set up for China. \u201cThis is why last year we saw enormous destruction visited on some Chinese NGOs, with the most symbolic landmark incident being the arrest of Xu Zhiyong and approximately one hundred other people in his team; he himself got a four-year sentence,\u201d Xia said.<\/p>\n
The founder of Open Constitution Initiative (OCI) and constitutional scholar Xu Zhiyong was sentenced to four years in January 2014. Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People\u2019s Court ruled that Xu was guilty of \u201cgathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.\u201d Xu Zhiyong\u2019s imprisonment, as well as the long-term harassment of other civil society groups, throws into relief the Chinese rulers\u2019 zero-tolerance policy toward any societal force that may pose a threat to its power. Teng Biao said: \u201cThey are afraid that civil society NGOs, including some human rights defense groups and defenders, are growing in strength, and thereby becoming a challenge to the government. To be blunt, they are afraid that peaceful evolution, Color Revolution, will endanger the party\u2019s rule.\u201d<\/p>\n Limited Space for Civil Society Organizations<\/p>\n Other viewpoints hold, however, that the Chinese government does not take a monolithic stance towards NGOs. According to the Economist, some Party members believe that it is impossible to completely bar the growing middle class from social participation, and carefully limited participation can help the CCP win popular support. By 2014, four types of civil society groups can freely register, and they are trade associations, science and technology groups, charity groups, and groups dedicated to social service. Karla Simon, author of the book Civil Society in China, is confident that as the registration threshold is lowered, Chinese NGOs are likely to double within the next several years.<\/p>\n Tightening Control on Funding Sources of NGOs<\/p>\n Even so, CCP still insists on tightly controlling the funding sources of NGOs. The Economist reports that money for a lot of Chinese NGOs comes directly from local governments. In 2012, Guangdong provincial government gave as much as 466 million RMB to NGOs, while Yunnan province spent 300 million. However, in order to receive funding, civil society groups need sponsorship from entities with government ties, and they are not allowed to solicit funds from the public, even though they have permission to receive corporate and individual funding. This means that, through funding channels, the government can effectively rein in the vast majority of NGOs.<\/p>\n In addition, the Chinese government has recently stepped up monitoring of NGOs that receive foreign donations. In November 2014, Guangzhou government issued \u201cManagement Rules of Social Organizations,\u201d putting in place the requirement that, effective January 1, 2015, NGOs that receive foreign funding must submit a written report to registration and relevant authorities 15 days before the receipt of funds at the latest. This requirement in effect blocks the funding conduit for the majority of labor NGOs which rely on foreign funding. According to the New York Times, employees of Transition Institute said that the bulk of the 3-4 million RMB of their organization\u2019s budget is from overseas. Such overseas connections increasingly convince the Chinese government that Transition Institute is a dangerous entity. In its opinion, overseas funding is a tool for subversion.<\/p>\n Sometimes, even when NGO funding is domestic, they are still targeted by the government. Xia Ming of CUNY said, \u201cEven when your money is from within China, the government still targets you quite harshly. One of the more obvious examples is Xu Zhiyong getting money from Wang Gongquan (\u738b\u529f\u6743), a billionaire, who was arrested for a time too. This is the best kind of warning to make sure that Chinese private entrepreneurs would not get mixed up in supporting civil society organizations.\u201d Wang Gongquan is a co-founder of the New Citizens Movement headed by Xu Zhiyong. On September 13, 2013, the Beijing police placed Wang in criminal detention, allegedly for \u201cgathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.\u201d Wang was paroled in January, 2014.<\/p>\n China is also ramping up controls on foreign NGOs in China. Fu Ying, a spokesperson for the National People\u2019s Congress (NPC), told the media before the Third Session of the 12th NPC began, that China needs to better manage foreign NGOs from the standpoint of national security. She said that legislation will be undertaken so that foreign NGO activities can abide by them. According to Chinese media reports, the Foreign NGO Management Law will require foreign NGOs to register and receive government approval before setting up branches in China.<\/p>\n Anxiety about a Color Revolution in China<\/p>\n Chan Kin-man (\u9648\u5065\u6c11), a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Director at the Civil Society Research Centre, believed that even though Chinese NGOs are growing exponentially in number, the space for their activities is shrinking. Xia Min of CUNY said that CCP will not, in all probability, allow independent civil society groups to develop unfettered. \u201cThe outcome of deepening civil society development must be the organizing of political parties,\u201d he said. \u201cTherefore, I think Xi\u2019s fear is exactly that the maturing of civil society will organically provide, with the organizing capacity and solidarity within Chinese society, a platform for the building of political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n Judging from the series of steps the government has taken towards NGOs recently, while it may have sensed already the enormous potential of these groups, they are held to be dispensable up against the goal of sustaining CCP rule.<\/p>\n [1] I was unable to find this article in Beijing News. It might have been censored. \u2013 The editor.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Related:<\/p>\n National security? China ready to slam door on foreign NGOs, the Christian Science Monitor, March 10, 2015.<\/p>\n In China, Civic Groups\u2019 Freedom, and Followers, Are Vanishing, New York Times, February 26, 2015.<\/p>\n Chinese civil society: Beneath the glacier, The Economist, April, 2014.<\/p>\n (Translated by Louisa Chiang)<\/p>\n Chinese original<\/p>\n For detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A translation of a VOA report in Chinese … Continue reading <\/a>
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