Foreign NGO Representative Office

This is a list of foreign NGOs which have de-registered a representative office in China after successfully registering under the 2017 Foreign NGO Law. The list, based on information available on the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) website,...

2020 saw something of a lull in foreign NGO activity in China. According to Ministry of Public Security data, fewer foreign NGOs registered new representative offices or initiated temporary activities than they had in the previous two years. Of...

Public security officials did not register any new foreign NGO representative offices in the month of May, marking the first time since the the Foreign NGO Law first took effect in January 2017 that an entire month elapsed without any registrations...

According to information on the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) website, Colleges and Institutes Canada, South Korea Shipbuilders’ Equipment Association, Miyazaki Local Products and Trade Promotion Center (Japan), and the Beijing office of...

On December 4, an NGO from Pakistan registered a representative office in China, making it the first Pakistan-based organization to either register an office or file for a temporary activity since the Foreign NGO Law went into effect in 2017.

Two South Korean NGOs shuttered their representative offices in China in recent months, according to information on the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) website. This makes for a total of nine foreign NGOs that registered a representative office in...

Since the establishment of the Guangdong PSB’s Foreign NGO Management Office on November 28, 2016, the office has provided registration and filing services. A total of 33 foreign NGO representative offices have been registered in Guangdong, and 474...

The Austria-China Peaceful Reunification Promotion Association (奥地利中国和平统一促进会) registered a representative office in China on May 29, 2019. This is particularly noteworthy not only because it is the first Austrian group to register an office under...

We’ve recently updated and re-organized our FAQ section based on user feedback. In particular, we’ve gathered key questions related to representative offices and temporary activities onto their own separate pages, to allow for easier browsing and...

According to information on the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) website, five foreign NGO representative offices have de-registered in recent months. This makes a total of seven foreign NGOs that registered after the Foreign NGO Law went into...

Foreign NGO registration occurs at the level of the province, which includes five autonomous regions (Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Tibet, Ningxia, and Xinjiang) and four municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing). Each province has...

A representative office allows for the establishment of a full-time presence in mainland China. For organizations that do not require such a constant in-country presence, filing to hold a single or multiple temporary activities is an alternative way...

Articles 45 and 46 of the Foreign NGO Law list the sanctions that can be applied to foreign NGOs that are not compliant with the Law. These include the suspension of activities, the confiscation of illegal assets, and the withdrawal of registration...

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has not offered formal guidance on this point, though it is becoming more pressing for NGOs who have been unable to obtain sponsorship from unresponsive Professional Supervisory Units (PSUs). Several NGOs have...

A recent report from China Development Brief (CDB) discusses how some foreign NGOs are choosing to carry out multiple, long-term temporary activities as an alternative to registering for a representative office. Pointing to a decline in the number...

The China NGO Project is not aware of any groups who have been explicitly denied registration by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) or by a provincial Public Security Bureau (PSB). Similarly, we are not aware of any groups who have had their...

Though the Ministry of Public Security does not appear to have issued official written guidance on this point, the registrations of multiple foreign NGO representative offices show that groups registered at the provincial level can indeed work...

A list of successfully registered NGOs is available here (in Chinese) on the Ministry of Public Security’s main NGO website. The China NGO Project also maintains a map with information about approved NGOs, including their location of registration,...

According to information available on the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) website, the North Korea International Trade Promotion Council successfully registered a representative office in Dalian city, Liaoning province on April 11. This is the...

As we greet 2019, we have now seen two full years of Foreign NGO Law implementation in China. If foreign NGOs thought that 2017 had a “crossing the river by feeling for stones” sense to it, 2018 was the year that registration and filing processes...

November 16, 2018:Recently, the Fujian Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office issued a registration certificate to BSK International (Germany). The PSB congratulated BSK on their newly-registered Xiamen representative office,...

According to information on the Ministry of Public Security website, the Japan External Trade Organization (日本贸易振兴机构, JETRO) de-registered its representative office in Guangzhou, as of June 29, 2018. Until de-registering, it was permitted to operate...

The Ministry of Civil Affairs published this notice in June 2018. It was translated by China Development Brief and first appeared on its website.Notice from the Ministry of Civil Affairs regarding “The Work Method for the Ministry of Civil Affairs...

Only two new representative offices were registered in June. The last time we saw such low registration numbers was between mid-February and mid-March of last year (right after the Foreign NGO Law came into effect). We don’t yet know if this drop-...

Today, two Japanese NGOs involved in desert greening in Inner Mongolia became legally registered. In an official ceremony, the Inner Mongolia Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office presented the representative offices of the...

Foreign NGOs may conduct work in “fields such as economics, education, science, culture, health, sports, and environmental protection, and for areas such as poverty relief and disaster relief.” Foreign NGOs’ work “must not endanger China’s national...

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) is approving new Professional Supervisory Units (PSUs) to sponsor foreign NGOs, in addition to those that were originally included on the 2017 list of eligible PSUs. As of May 1, at least 11 unlisted PSUs have...

Today, the Zhejiang Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office held information and education sessions on the Foreign NGO Law at multiple colleges and universities in Hangzhou. Utilizing infographics, posters, video broadcasts,...

Despite People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) officials’ statements to the contrary, it is clear that 2017 was more of a “soft launch” for the Foreign NGO Law, a year of ambiguity and improvisation for both foreign NGOs and for the public security...

Statistics showing the number of foreign NGOs that have filed for temporary activities or established representative offices from January 2017 through April 2018 are now available as part of our suite of data visualizations.

Today, the George Institute for Global Health (Australia) registered a representative office in Beijing. Established in Sydney in 1999, the Institute began working in China in 2007, conducting research on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, nutrition...

According to information on the Ministry of Public Security website, the Li Ka Shing Foundation (Hong Kong) de-registered its representative office in China, as of February 28, 2018. This is the first (and only) known organization to de-register...

As reported by Chinanews.com, on March 26 the Guangdong Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office gave six foreign NGOs a “2017 Exceptional Representative Office Award.” These foreign NGOs were: The Chinese General Chamber of...

The China NGO Project has just posted the latest breakdown of statistics for foreign NGO representative office registrations and temporary activity filings, to include information through the end of March 2018.

According to information on the Ministry of Public Security website, on April 3 a North Korean organization successfully registered its first foreign NGO representative office in China. Located in Changchun city, Jilin province, the North Korea...

Today, the Jiangxi Foreign NGO Management Office and the provincial Department of Civil Affairs sent personnel to Pingxiang City to visit the Luxi County Children’s Care Center, run by The Chinese Agape Foundation (United States). The government...

Following the lead of the Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management office, the Shanghai PSB Foreign NGO Management Office held a training on how to complete annual reports for 2017. In attendance were representative and financial...

As detailed in a February 9 Ministry of Public Security WeChat post, the Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office held a special training session to explain to Beijing-based foreign NGOs how to correctly submit their 2017...

We’ve updated our monthly tallies of foreign NGO temporary activities and representative offices as well as our graphics showing which Chinese government entities are serving as Professional Supervisory Units (and which are not). As we do...

Today, the Ministry of Public Security Foreign NGO Management Office, together with the Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office, held a conference with representatives of foreign NGOs in China.

Today, the Zhejiang Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office used new media to heighten awareness of the Foreign NGO Law after one year of implementation, resulting in a number of provincial and local news sites re-sharing and...

Today, Shanxi held a meeting for foreign NGO Professional Supervisory Units (PSUs). Representatives from each of the province’s 42 PSUs participated. (Note: This likely refers to eligible PSUs, as Shanxi had registered no representative offices as...

In response to reader feedback, we’ve made two big changes this week to our tables that contain translated Ministry of Public Security information on representative offices and temporary activities: First, we’ve enabled a filter/search function on...

We’ve just posted the latest information about all the foreign NGO temporary activities and representative office registrations that took place as of January 31, 2018. Of note, registrations of representative offices were down somewhat in January—...

Any foreign NGO seeking to register a representative office or file for a temporary activity in China must prepare a number of official documents in the location where it is headquartered. These documents must be notarized and authenticated in the...

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...

During our year-end review of 2017’s official Ministry of Public Security data on foreign NGOs in China, we came across several interesting tidbits that didn’t fit into stories elsewhere on the site. Rather than holding onto them into 2018, we...

With almost 300 foreign NGO representative offices registered this year, implementation of the Foreign NGO Law has entered a new phase: management. For foreign NGOs that were operating informally or under a different status before, formal...

On December 14, the Charity Philanthropy Research Institute (CPRI) at Beijing Normal University published an interview with OVCI la Nostra Famiglia (OVCI Our Family) about their registration process under the Foreign NGO Law. OVCI stressed the...

Today, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) released statistics showing foreign NGO representative offices and temporary activities from January to November of this year.

On December 1, China Development Brief (CDB) held a workshop in Beijing for foreign NGOs in China. NGOs that had already registered a representative office in China shared their experiences related to finding a Professional Supervisory Unit,...

We’ve updated our suite of data visualizations to include information through the end of November. Several new countries of origin were represented among foreign NGOs that successfully registered their first representative office in...

On November 21, the State Forestry Administration convened a meeting on the Foreign NGO Law, attended by 28 provincial- and city-level Forestry offices as well as by the Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office...

China Development Brief (CDB) has translated and published a statistical analysis of foreign NGO representative office registrations and temporary activity filings for the first nine months of the year. The analysis, originally published in Chinese...