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Is China's New Overseas NGO Management Law Sounding the Death Knell for Civil Society? Maybe Not.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Carolyn Hsu  and
Jessica Teets
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Summary

In May 2015, a draft of China's newOverseas NGO Management Law was leaked to the media. International journalists and NGOs declared that this law was evidence of the Xi Jinping regime's political repression and a “crackdown” on civil society. In this paper, we argue that the goal of the Chinese government is not to destroy the NGO sector and civil society, but instead a tactical move in a long term strategy so that the state can gain as much benefit (and minimize as much risk) from the NGO sector as possible. Moreover, the Chinese NGO sector is not a passive victim of oppression, but a dynamic actor that pushes back to serve its own interests. The second half of this paper examines the experiences of overseas NGOs in Yunnan, which have been operating under similar regulations since 2010. In Yunnan, similar policies did not result in the elimination or even diminishment of overseas NGOs. Instead, foreign NGOs were constrained in some aspects even as they benefited in other ways.

Keywords

Overseas NGO Management Lawcivil societyNGOOVERSEAS NGOlaw
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , February 2016 , e3
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2016

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