Civil Society

According to a report in the Beijing News, 16 years of reforms aimed at limiting the size and role of government in one Chinese city have been a relative failure, in large part as a result of structural incentives within the Chinese bureaucracy.

Designated by the State Council as a special reform zone in 1988, Shishi city, Fujian province implemented reforms aimed at creating a “small government, but large civil society.” Initially, these reforms met with success. Total government employment reached only about one-third of the standard personnel allotment for similar cities. However, by 2004, the size of local government had mushroomed dramatically. Total numbers of Party and government bureaus increased by about a half, while total employment at state-sponsored public institutions more than doubled.

According to a report from the 21st Century Business Herald, the personnel bureau of the Shanghai municipal government has issued a comprehensive plan for the reform of local public institutions. These aim at regularizing public institutions, and may lead to increased independence for at least some of them.

Chinese public institutions are state-controlled organizations providing a range of public services. Examples include hospitals, schools, and sports organizations. As of 2001, they employed over 25 million people. Many regularly lose money, creating sizable financial burdens on local governments. Public institutions are a significant component of China's state-dominated civil society. For further information, see the civil society section of the 2004 Annual Report.

A Beijing News article announced the founding of the All China Lawyers Association Constitutional and Human Rights Committee, with Wu Ge to serve as the first director. At the opening cermony of the new center, Wang Jianmin, director (along with Wu Ge) of an analagous Qinghua University program, called for the reform or elimination of those Chinese laws or regulations inconsistent with human rights standards.

https://www.cc.org.cn/

Recent incidents of rural unrest in Henan and Sichuan raise questions about whether Chinese leaders will be able to maintain stability in this period of hurtling economic change and widening economic disparity. Field research in rural China is crucial to understanding the roots of the unrest and evaluating how China hopes to resolve it.

According to the Beijing News, Qiao Shenqian, Assistant Director of the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) Registration Service Center, suggested the possible elimination of the regulatory requirement that Chinese NGOs find an approved government or Party sponsor organization to legally register. Qiao made the comment at a recent international conference on the development of Chinese civil society. He noted that a precise date for the elimination of the requirement cannot be set, but "its elimination is imperative," and expressed hope that this would be carried out "in the not-too-distant future." As the Congressional-Executive Commission on China has noted in its 2004 Annual Report, the sponsor organization requirement remains a continued obstacle to the further development of an independent civil society in China. Party and government sponsors have responsibility for annually reviewing NGO work, which often limits the type and extent of activities Chinese NGOs may engage in.

Reporter Philip Pan writes that activists organizing assistance for HIV victims in Henan Province face many obstacles. Li Dan gave up a career in astronomy to try to help the victims of HIV/AIDS in Henan. He decided to focus on children whose parents had died of the disease, and set up an orphanage and school in Shangqiu, finding volunteers to staff it, and raising funds from donors in Shanghai and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, he was not able to get his school approved by the local bureau of civil affairs unless he turned the money over to them and had the city run the school. Li's decision to go ahead with the school without approval led to determined efforts by local leaders to close it down, in part because they felt that such a school harmed the city's reputation.