Two worthwhile articles about civil society in China came out in earlier this month. The first, by Christian Shepard and Michael Martina of Reuters, highlights the difficulties faced by organizations attempting to register under the Foreign NGO Law. It cites three organizations—Humane Society International, National Geographic Society, and Stiftung Asienhaus—that told Reuters their operations have slowed or stopped due to the bureaucratic hurdles associated with registration.
The second article was featured in Sixth Tone, an English-language publication affiliated with Party media. The article was dated July 8 but is no longer on Sixth Tone’s website; its cached version, however, is still available. In it, reporter Nuala Gathercole Lam interviews Li Dan, the founder of the domestic organization Crossroads Centre. Explaining why his organization is registered as a business, Li says that, “In China, there is no point in registering an NGO, unless you want to use government resources. It’s much more convenient if you are a commercial organization, which is what we’ve been right from the start.” Li also notes that neither the Charity Law nor the Foreign NGO Law has had much impact on his group, as it had already felt the impact of the overall political environment for the last three or four years, before either of the laws went into effect.