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 decided to simply publish them so that you’ll be able to use them as you see fit in the coming months.
Temporary Activities
- Two limited liability companies (LLCs, 有限公司) have served as Chinese Partner Units for foreign NGOs carrying out temporary activities. This is despite the Foreign NGO Law’s assertion that only State organs, people’s organizations, public institutions, or social organizations can serve as Chinese Partner Units. The two activities in question were:
- Organization Name: Natural Resources Defense Council (United States)
- Activity Name: Green Electricity Supply and Demand Interactive Program to Drive Prices Via Market Mechanisms (市场机制下价格驱动的绿色电力供需友好互动项目)
- Chinese Partner Unit: Shenzhen Office of Electricity Supply Limited (深圳供电局有限公司)
- Location: Guangdong Province, Shenzhen City
- Start Date: 2017-10-10
- End Date: 2018-08-01
- WorldTeach (United States)
- Activity Name: Cooperation Program with WorldTeach to Introduce Foreign Teachers (与世界教学组织合作引进外教项目)
- Chinese Partner Unit: Changsha Yuanjing Education Consulting Limited (长沙远景教育咨询有限公司)
- Location: Hunan Province
- Start Date: 2017-09-01
- End Date: 2018-06-30
- There are a number of provinces which have had very few temporary activities taking place (either in full or in part) in their jurisdictions; this excludes “nationwide” temporary activities. The following provinces and provincial-level administrative entities have had fewer than ten temporary activities carried out within their borders: Fujian (7), Hainan (3), Hebei (8), Heilongjiang (8), Jiangsu (7), Jiangxi (4), Jilin (4), Liaoning (8), Ningxia (6), Shanxi (4), Tianjin (6), Tibet (2), Xinjiang (5), and Xinjiang Bingtuan (0).
Representative Offices
- One foreign NGO, The Netherlands Trade Promotion Council, has opened two representative offices in the same province (one each in the cities of Jinan and Qingdao in Shandong province), both with the same Professional Supervisory Unit (the Shandong Commission of Commerce). It is unclear how this is permitted under the Law, which states that a foreign NGOs with multiple representative offices must ensure that their permitted areas of operation (usually delineated at the province-level) do not overlap.
- The following provinces have not yet registered any foreign NGO representative offices: Hainan, Hebei, Ningxia, Shanxi, Xinjiang, and Xinjiang Bingtuan.
- Of the 75 foreign NGO representative offices that have a national- (ministry-) level Professional Supervisory Unit (PSU), 67 are registered in Beijing. The remaining eight NGOs with a national-level PSU are registered in Guangdong (3 NGOs), Guangxi (1), Jiangsu (1), Shaanxi (1), Shandong (1), and Shanghai (1).
- Only eight provinces have registered foreign NGO representative offices working nationwide. These are: Anhui (1 office), Beijing (56), Gansu (1), Guangdong (1), Guangxi (1), Jiangsu (1), Shandong (2), and Shanghai (40). Of note, Anhui has only approved the registration for one foreign NGO representative office, though that office is permitted to work nationwide.
- The following provinces have approved at least one foreign NGO registration but do not have any foreign NGOs working nationwide: Chongqing, Fujian, Guizhou, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Tibet, Yunnan, and Zhejiang. It is unclear if these differences in permitted areas of work are the result of nationally-focused NGOs clustering in certain provinces, unwillingness of certain provincial PSBs to approve nationwide scopes of work, or both.
Data cutoff: December 15, 2017.