e-magazine
The Hot Zone
China's newly announced air defense identification zone over the East China Sea aims to shore up national security
Current Issue
· Table of Contents
· Editor's Desk
· Previous Issues
· Subscribe to Mag
Subscribe Now >>
Expert's View
World
Nation
Business
Finance
Market Watch
Legal-Ease
North American Report
Forum
Government Documents
Expat's Eye
Health
Science/Technology
Lifestyle
Books
Movies
Backgrounders
Special
Photo Gallery
Blogs
Reader's Service
Learning with
'Beijing Review'
E-mail us
RSS Feeds
PDF Edition
Web-magazine
Reader's Letters
Make Beijing Review your homepage
Hot Links

cheap eyeglasses
Market Avenue
eBeijing

Top Story
Top Story
UPDATED: April 12, 2013 NO. 15 APRIL 11, 2013
Springtime for NGOs
Government relaxes registration restrictions for social organizations
By Wang Hairong
Share

LOVE GIVING: Li Mei, a worker with an NGO dedicated to helping autistic children in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, plays with a kid with the developmental disorder on March 28 (NIE JIANJIANG)

Non-government organizations (NGOs) will encounter less red tape while providing public services in China. On March 10, the State Council, China's cabinet, announced its decision to loosen registration requirements for NGOs as part of sweeping reforms to place rational limits on government intervention in civil affairs.

Industrial associations, chambers of commerce, charities, community service organizations, and organizations involved in science and technology fields can directly register with civil affairs authorities without prior examination or approval, said Ma Kai, then Secretary General of the State Council, when unveiling a plan on the State Council's institutional reform and transformation of government functions to this year's session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.

But the establishment of a social organization regarding politics, legal issues and religion is still subject to prior government examination and approval, as are overseas NGOs applying to open representative offices in China, according to the plan.

The plan acknowledged that the requirements for establishing social organizations are too high, and even some NGOs tend to operate in a bureaucratic way like government departments.

"The current management mechanism is no longer suitable for the standardized development of social organizations," Ma said.

In the plan, the State Council pledged to let social organizations play a greater role in managing social issues.

On March 14, the NPC adopted the State Council's plan.

Bigger society

This new effort to remove entry barriers for NGOs is part of the State Council's "bigger society, smaller government" initiative.

Previously, an NGO had to find a government department or agency to be its supervisory body before it could legally register, according to the 1998 Regulation on Registration and Administration of Social Organizations.

According to the reform plan, the State Council will separate industrial associations and chambers of commerce from administrative departments, as well as introduce a competitive mechanism featuring multiple associations for a single industry, which is believed to boost their independence and vitality.

Priority will be given to the establishment of social organizations in the fields of commerce and science and technology, and those related to public interests and charitable and rural-urban community services, the plan said.

"There is huge potential for NGOs to supplement the government in public services," said Xue Lan, Dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University.

The government should set rules and act as a judge rather than a player and judge at the same time, according to Xue.

"Previously, the government required NGOs to first have a supervisory organization out of concern that civil affairs authorities were not capable of managing these highly diverse organizations," said Deng Guosheng, a Tsinghua University professor studying NGOs. "However, this requirement had become a bottleneck hindering the development of NGOs."

Many government departments are reluctant to shoulder the responsibility as the supervising agency of NGOs. As a result, many non-public charitable organizations have registered as corporations or operated without registration.

Beijing Stars and Rain, founded in 1993, is dedicated to helping autistic children in China. Data on its website show that it has helped over 6,000 autistic children and their families through unique parent-training courses. Despite the achievements, it couldn't go through the NGO registration procedure because it failed to find a supervisor meeting government requirements.

More than 3 million NGOs in China are not officially recognized, estimated Yu Keping, Director of the Center for Chinese Government Innovations at Peking University and Deputy Director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, a leading think tank of the ruling Communist Party of China.

1   2   Next  



 
Top Story
-Protecting Ocean Rights
-Partners in Defense
-Fighting HIV+'s Stigma
-HIV: Privacy VS. Protection
-Setting the Tone
Related Stories
-Nurturing Philanthropists
 
Most Popular
 
About BEIJINGREVIEW | About beijingreview.com | Rss Feeds | Contact us | Advertising | Subscribe & Service | Make Beijing Review your homepage
Copyright Beijing Review All right reserved