Forecasting the Development of China’s Civil Society After the 18th Party Congress (Excerpt)

• Author: China Development Brief

The Chinese government wants to support the development of NGOs, but at the same time, closely manage and supervise the process of that development. In the run-up to the 18^th Party Congress, the news fell into two categories of policy trends that we have been seeing over this past year.

The first of these trends involves policies that are more supportive of social organizations, the official term in China for nonprofits or NGOs. These policies come in different forms. One is the continuation of reforms at the local level to make registration easier for social organizations. Another policy involves local governments setting up special funds to support and incubate social organizations and to contract out certain services to social organizations.

The second trend involves policies seeking to better regulate and manage the social organization sector. Both the Ministry of Civil Affairs and local Civil Affairs bureaus are providing ratings to registered social organizations, although it is not clear what goes into creating these ratings. An organization’s rating is good for a three-year period and is based on a 1000-point rating system.

We have discussed the role of the Social Affairs Committee which is a newly formed agency under the local Party Committee responsible for social affairs which includes the development of social organizations. This month, we continue to hear more news about efforts to establish Party branches and groups within social organizations. This trend would mean both the government and Party...