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• The number of civil society organizations in China is growing, with many organizations undertaking projects such as poverty alleviation, faith-based social work, and legal efforts to protect citizen rights. These organizations include national mass organizations that the Communist Party created and funds, smaller citizen associations registered under national regulations, and loose networks of unregistered grassroots organizations. In February 2006, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation selected six groups as the first civil society organizations to receive Chinese government funding to run experimental anti-poverty programs, including the China office of a U.S.-based rural development organization.

• Central authorities seek to maintain control over civil society groups, halt the emergence of independent organizations, and prevent what they have called the "Westernization" of China. While recognizing the utility of civil society organizations to address social problems, Chinese authorities use strict regulations to limit the growth of an independent civil society. Some Chinese citizens who attempt to organize groups outside of state control have been imprisoned. These include individuals who have attempted to establish independent labor unions and political associations, such as China Free Trade Union Preparatory Committee member Hu Shigen and China Democracy Party member Qin Yongmin; or young intellectuals who organize informal discussion groups, such as New Youth Study Group members Jin Haike, Xu Wei, Yang Zili, and Zhang Honghai.

• Chinese officials have taken additional steps to curtail civil society organizations in the past year, but authorities are undecided on how to proceed. Since early 2005, Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) officials have been researching a new administrative system to monitor and control civil society organizations. Many details of the new system are undetermined, such as who will conduct the required evaluations of civil society groups, how the evaluation results will be used, and who will fund the evaluations. At the same time, Chinese authorities have supported limited reforms to the status of civil society organizations. MOCA officials are advocating changes to the tax code to encourage private donations to civil society organizations. Central Party officials have expressed support for the creation of rural farmer cooperatives in annual policy guidelines issued each year since 2004.

Civil Society and Government Controls

The number of civil society organizations in China is growing, with many organizations undertaking projects such as poverty alleviation, faith-based social work, and legal efforts to protect citizen rights.¹ These organizations include national mass organizations that the Communist Party created and funds, smaller citizen associations registered under national regulations, and loose networks of unregistered grassroots organizations.² According to official Chinese statistics, the number of registered civil society organizations increased from 288,936 in 2004 to 317,000 in 2006, but one Chinese source estimates the number of unregistered organizations to be as high as 3 million.³ Chinese authorities support the growth of civil society organizations to help address social problems such as poverty and AIDS.⁴ Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) officials acknowledge that these organizations have "exerted [a] positive influence in boosting China's economic growth and helping maintain social stability."⁵ In February 2006, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation selected six groups to be the first civil society organizations to receive Chinese government funding to run experimental anti-poverty programs, including the China office of a U.S.-based rural development organization.⁶

While recognizing the utility of civil society organizations to address social problems, Chinese authorities use strict regulations to limit the growth of an independent civil society. National regulations issued in 1998 require that civil society organizations have a government-approved sponsor organization to register and obtain legal status.⁷ The government limits sponsor organizations to designated government and Party bureaus.⁸ This requirement contravenes Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides that:

[N]o restrictions shall be placed on the exercise of [the freedom of association] other than those which are prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety. . . .⁹

Chinese regulations that require a government sponsor organization for registration, and that consider all groups that do not register to be illegal, differ from legal standards in many countries and regions, including India, South Korea, the European Union, and the United States.¹⁰ Other countries, such as Moldova, Singapore, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, have legal requirements similar to those in China.¹¹

Chinese civil society organizations also have difficulty raising funds, which limits their ability to act independently. The majority of funds raised by environmental civil society organizations is monopolized by a small group of organizations with close official ties, according to a 2005 survey by the All-China Environment Federation (ACEF).¹² As a result, these groups avoid direct confrontation with the government. Almost 65 percent of environmental organizations say that they would prefer to cooperate with authorities, while 32.1 percent said they would neither cooperate with nor oppose the government.¹³ As one officer of a Chinese civil society organization noted, "[we] all recognize that keeping in line with government policies and receiving government approval are indispensable prerequisites for successful action."¹⁴ These pressures are heightened by legal rules that hamper the ability of civil society organizations to raise funds from private domestic donors.¹⁵ Current law provides that Chinese corporations may only deduct charitable donations for tax purposes that are made to a few specified groups, and limits tax exemptions to 3 percent of income.¹⁶

Central authorities seek to maintain control over civil society groups, halt the emergence of truly independent organizations, and prevent what they have called the "Westernization" of China. Top government and Party officials have stopped citizen efforts to register groups that they perceive as a threat, such as qigong associations and organizations of veterans, laborers, and the unemployed.¹⁷ Party officials have ordered the establishment of Party cells within civil society organizations.¹⁸ Chinese authorities periodically issue warnings against the use of civil society organizations by "hostile Western forces" to "combat" or "infiltrate" China¹⁹ [see Section V(a)--Special Focus for 2006: Freedom of Expression and Section V(d)--Freedom of Religion]. Some Chinese citizens who attempt to organize groups outside of state control have been imprisoned. These individuals include those who have attempted to establish independent labor unions and political associations, such as China Free Trade Union Preparatory Committee member Hu Shigen and China Democracy Party member Qin Yongmin, and young intellectuals who organize informal discussion groups, such as New Youth Study Group members Jin Haike, Yang Zili, Xu Wei, and Zhang Honghai.²⁰

Official reluctance to permit independent citizen associations limits the options of Chinese citizens seeking to protect their interests. According to the 2005 ACEF survey, only 23.3 percent of Chinese environmental civil society groups are registered.²¹ The absence of applicable national legal standards hampers the development of the approximately 140,000 rural farmer cooperatives established as of 2003. Farmers use these cooperatives to pool resources, increase their competitiveness, and undertake limited collective action against government authorities. National law does not provide clear legal standards for the registration of these organizations. Without legal status, they cannot borrow money from institutional lenders or sign legally binding contracts. Their tax obligations are also unclear. Some have registered with MOCA, others with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and others choose not to register.²²

Developments During 2005 and 2006

Chinese officials have taken additional steps to curtail civil society organizations in the past year, but recent developments indicate that authorities are undecided on how to proceed with additional controls. In early 2005, an article in an academic journal sponsored by the State Council pressed officials to prevent Western "infiltration and sabotage of China through political NGOs."²³ International NGOs with U.S. ties operating in China subsequently have reported Chinese partners cancelling or withdrawing from projects under government pressure.²⁴ Since 2005, Chinese public security officials have investigated the operations of domestic and international civil society organizations and questioned their staff.²⁵ In February 2006, prominent Chinese AIDS activist Hu Jia resigned from Loving Source, an organization that he helped establish to assist the orphans of AIDS victims, citing pressure on the organization's international donors. Hu said that the Chinese government "is using soft methods to narrow the space NGOs can exist in. The authorities are worried a civil society would bring about a strong force that challenges its rule."²⁶ In August 2006, one Western expert on Chinese civil society said that there has been a "virtual paralysis" of official registration by civil society organizations in China, contrasted this with a more permissive climate two years ago, and also noted an increase in self-censorship on the part of civil society organizations that seek to avoid antagonizing the government.²⁷

Since early 2005, Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) officials have been researching a new administrative system to supervise and control civil society organizations. In March 2005, MOCA established a leading group to develop this system. During the summer of 2005, MOCA sponsored research on the new system in Jinan and Qingdao municipalities in Shandong province, and participated in international conferences regarding new management techniques for civil society organizations in the fall of 2005.²⁸ News media reports and official statements say that the system will be designed to "evaluate" and "rate" civil society organizations.²⁹ Many details of the new system have not been determined, such as who will conduct the evaluations, how the evaluation results will be used, and who will fund the evaluations.³⁰ Provincial efforts to implement the new system suggest that it will augment rather than replace existing controls. For example, Jiangxi provincial officials called for the implementation of the new administrative system in March 2006, and said that it should operate in addition to existing registration authorities and official sponsor organizations.³¹ A MOCA official said these efforts seek to improve the "quality" of civil society organizations,³² while MOCA-sponsored conferences have linked these efforts to the elimination of "illegal organizations."³³

Central government officials continue to consider draft revisions to the 1998 regulations that govern civil society organizations. Although MOCA officials have suggested that the sponsor organization requirement be abolished,³⁴ other central government officials have rejected this option. State publications note that "there are no fundamental changes in the draft revision[s]" and that the sponsor organization requirement will remain unchanged.³⁵ News reports suggest that the planned revisions contain a degree of liberalization, allowing authorities discretion to register multiple civil organizations of the same type in the same administrative area, and removing high capital requirements for registration.³⁶ Reports also indicate that the revisions will allow international organizations that operate in China to register, but will also require them to have approved sponsor organizations.³⁷ Existing regulations do not specify a procedure for most foreign NGOs to register, and therefore their status is unclear.³⁸ The reported content of the revisions corresponds to the approach taken in 2004 national regulations on foundations, which replaced a prior set of rules on the same subject.³⁹

Chinese authorities have supported limited reforms to the status of civil society organizations. MOCA officials are advocating changes to the tax code to encourage private donations to civil society organizations.⁴⁰ Central Communist Party officials have expressed support for the creation of rural farmer cooperatives in annual policy guidelines issued each year since 2004.⁴¹ Zhejiang provincial officials have experimented with granting legal status to these cooperatives, passing the first set of provincial regulations in 2004, and registering the first group of associations under these rules in 2005.⁴² In 2006, Chinese leaders voiced support for national legislation to reform lending, tax, and registration treatment of rural farmer cooperatives.⁴³ The National People's Congress (NPC) has placed relevant proposals on the 2006 legislative calendar. Nonetheless, NPC delegates say that the central government's attitude toward these organizations remains "cautious" and that central officials only support these reforms because they have concluded that these cooperatives are economic in nature, and will not become involved in political issues.⁴⁴