NGO Law Monitor: China RESEARCH CENTER - The International ...

China - NGO Law Monitor - Research Center - ICNL
http://www.icnl.org/research/monitor/china.html[11/9/2012 4:19:31 PM]
and open bidding to both registered and unregistered NGOs.
There is also a concern that the emphasis of these policies will be more on “social management” and less on
serving and supporting social organizations. One article in the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship
paper, drove this point home when it argued that making it easier for social organizations to register does
not mean the government should relax its supervision over these organizations. One example of this
position might be found in the Beijing Civil Affairs Department’s “Measures for Managing Seminars, Forums
and Activities Organized by Social Organizations” mentioned earlier.
Two other developments in the labor sector in Guangdong bear watching. One is the closing of Zhang Zhiru’s
labor NGO, Dagongzhe. It’s still unclear at this point why the NGO was closed and whether it will be allowed
to re-open. It is also unclear whether this is part of a general crackdown on labor NGOs, or as appears more
likely, only an isolated instance.
The other news coming out in mid-May is the creation of a Federation of Social Service Organizations for
Guangdong Workers under the Guangdong All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). The idea seems to
be to use Party-controlled “mass organizations” such as the ACFTU to create a legitimate platform for labor
NGOs to provide services to workers. (This has been tried in Beijing but with little success.) In turn, the
ACFTU will have a hand in supporting and supervising these NGOs. It may be an intermediate step for labor
NGOs to gain legal registration, but can also be seen as a way for the state to coopt labor NGOs.
In other related developments this month that may affect the civil society sector, the State Council
Information Office issued its second human rights plan -- Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015) -- that
emphasizes the following rights:
1. Right to Know, which includes promoting disclosure of unclassified government information.
2. Civil Rights – more safeguards for detention and torture, including forbidding the use of extortion and
other illegal means to gain confessions and other information.
3. Environmental rights – strengthening heavy metal and water pollution prevention and controls, and
monitoring air quality, including PM2.5 particulate matter.
4. Rights to expression – strengthening the petitioning and complaints system, and the rights of
journalists and media organizations.
5. Rights to fair trial – strengthening procedures and review for death penalty cases, and for gathering
evidence.
6. Right to social security – focusing on housing security, raising the minimum wage, expanding health
coverage to urban residents.
July 2012: More Local Initiatives
July saw more news coming from Guangdong, Nanjing and Beijing, all having to do with different local
approaches aimed at lowering the barriers to registration for NGOs (or “social organizations” using the
Chinese terminology.) In Guangdong, questions were raised about the implementation of a new regulation
aimed at allowing social organizations to register directly given recent developments in the labor sector.
One new development is the crackdown on several labor NGOs registered as businesses, such as Zhang
Zhiru’s labor NGO, Chunfeng Labor Dispute Services Agency. In some cases, this crackdown has taken the
form of the landlord telling the NGO the lease is up. In more blatant cases, such as the Shidai Women’s Labor
Agency, local government agencies came to inspect the NGO and informed them they would have to close.
The other development mentioned is the creation of a Federation of Social Service Organizations for
Guangdong Workers under the Guangdong All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). The idea here
seems to be to use Party-controlled “mass organizations” such as the ACFTU to create a legitimate platform
for labor NGOs to provide services to workers. This arrangement is described as an intermediate step for
labor NGOs to gain some form of legal recognition (in Chinese, the term used is bei’an or document filing
system) that may eventually help them legally register.
Labor NGOs in China have generally been seen as sensitive, which has caused observers to question whether
they would be treated the same way as less sensitive NGOs and be allowed to register directly under the new
Guangdong regulations. These new developments suggest that local authorities may be trying to push labor
NGOs into a more regulated, supervised space.
In Nanjing, the city’s Civil Affairs Department announced it would lower the registration requirements for
social organizations, such as lowering the registered capital requirement from 30,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan. In
addition, the Nanjing City Civil Affairs Department will devolve the authority to register and manage three
categories of social organizations (charitable, social welfare and social service) to the district/county level.