When the new rules are finally published, what are the main provisions likely to be?
Civil Affairs officials have declined to discuss the likely content of the rules. The department responsible has little knowledge or experience of working with international development NGOs and, as far as we know, has not consulted with any. It is doubtful whether the department has a clear idea of the nature and range of international NGOs working in China. This does not bode well: it cannot be easy to regulate a sector one does not know, and if an enabling environment results, it may be more by accident than design. Perhaps the likeliest outcome, however, is that the regulations will formalise the current system of partnering with recognised Chinese agencies, in a way that broadly mirrors rules issued in 1998 for registration and management of Chinese ‘social organisations.’ These require organisations to find a government agency in a relevant sector willing to act as a sponsoring unit and to ‘supervise’ the group’s activities. Only having found such a sponsor can a social organisat
