State Council Considering Modest Liberalization of NGO Regulations; No Relaxation of Sponsorship Requirement Likely

Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) officials have completed drafting revised national regulations on social organizations, and are negotiating about issuing the regulations with the legal affairs office of the State Council, according to a May 19 Southern Weekend report. The revised regulations would treat Chinese NGOs slightly more liberally in the registration process, but would not alter core elements of government control.

According to news media reports, the specific changes that MOCA has proposed include: (1) reducing the amount of registered capital required; (2) eliminating examination procedures; and (3) removing the restriction on having more than one NGO of the same type (e.g., bird watching) in the same administrative region. The new regulations would apply to foreign NGOs as well. They also require local governments to give unspecified policy "assistance" to NGOs. Many of these elements resemble those found in the national foundation regulations that were passed in 2004. (For more information, see the Civil Society section of the Commission's 2004 Annual Report.)

The proposed amendments would not affect the core device that the Chinese government uses to control civil society organizations: the requirement that NGOs obtain a sponsor organization to be able to register. This rule imposes significant burdens on NGOs. As the director of the Qinghua University NGO research institute remarked, "According to our research, China has 3 million social organizations, but only 280 thousand are registered. Why? Because the sponsor requirement is too strict, most social organizations can't find sponsors." According to the Southern Weekend article, the revised regulations would explicitly apply this requirement to foreign NGOs operating in China.

Whether or not the State Council will adopt the proposed revisions to the regulations is unclear. In the past, MOCA officials and liberal academics have proposed changes to Chinese civil society regulations (see here and here), only to have the central leadership refuse to adopt them.