Based on data released on June 28, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has permitted four additional entities to become Professional Supervisory Units (PSUs) for foreign NGOs. These are:
- the Ministry of Land and Resources, which sponsored the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Shandong;
- the Chinese Association for International Understanding, which sponsored the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Beijing;
- the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which sponsored the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Beijing;
- and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, which sponsored the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Shanghai.
The addition of these four new PSUs confirms that the MPS is actively approving applications with sponsors who were not on the initial list of eligible PSUs issued at the end of last year. The China NGO Project previously reported that the State Administration of Grain and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission have sponsored foreign NGOs despite not being on the initial 2017 list of PSUs.
Of the four new PSUs, three are not technically government agencies, though they are all government-affiliated. The Shanghai Institutes for International Studies is affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Like the All-China Women’s Federation (which is included on 2017’s list of eligible PSUs), the Chinese Association for International Understanding and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries are technically domestic Chinese NGOs but have strong ties with the Party and state. The quasi-government nature of these entities mirrors that of the organizations they are sponsoring; all of the foreign NGOs sponsored by these entities are German political foundations, which are affiliated with German political parties and receive government funding based on their party’s representation in parliament.
A full list of PSUs that are sponsoring foreign NGOs can be found here.
