Author Archive:

Karla Simon

Opinion Karla Simon 24 May 2014

Charity and Social Enterprise in China

Charity In mid-May the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) held a conference on Philanthropy in China and released the news that 2013 was indeed a watershed year for CSOs. At the end of the year …

Opinion Karla Simon 4 March 2014

Civil society in China

February was another very busy month for civil society in China.  The developments were in several areas: tax exemption, direct registration, implementing regulations on cancellation of the branch registration requirement for national social organizations, procurement …

Opinion Karla Simon 4 February 2014

Civil society developments in China

January was a huge month for civil society developments in China and many of them are noteworthy. They involved a variety of issues, including more provinces adopting the direct registration regime, and the recognition by …

Opinion Karla Simon 6 January 2014

2013 – A year of contradictions

In my previous post I discussed the Third Plenum and the fact that the highest echelons of the Communist Party seem to have taken on board the proposed changes in the registration system for CSOs. …

Opinion Karla Simon 23 December 2013

Conference reports 2013 – Philanthropy and civil society in China

In November three important events related to philanthropy and civil society in China were held in Beijing.  The most important of these was the ‘Third Plenum’ of the Communist Party, which among other things highlighted …

Opinion Karla Simon 25 September 2013

Civil society events make headway but China still needs to develop trust in CSOs

I was honoured to be invited to speak at two events about civil society in China held during the Mid-Autumn Festival this month (when one consumes lots of mooncakes at family gatherings held throughout China …

Opinion Karla Simon 29 July 2013

Loosening of rules for foreign CSOs in China coming

A front-page headline in 19 July’s China Daily proclaims: ‘Foreign NGO registration rules eased.’ While something of an overstatement, it is nonetheless good news and the move is to be applauded.  At the current time only foreign foundations …

Opinion 4 Karla Simon 1 July 2013

Reforming CSOs in China

Following up on my March and April posts, I wanted to return to the subject of reforms in the legal framework for CSOs in China. As I noted, there is a special relationship between the …

Opinion 2 Karla Simon 23 May 2013

Good news and bad from the public interest law front in China

There are not many CSOs in China with good luck in public interest suits. The environmental area is one where there is great success, but other types of suits frequently miss their mark because courts …

Opinion 3 Karla Simon 26 April 2013

News from China: roll-out of plan to allow CSOs to directly register, the earthquake response and other developments

Pursuant to the plan announced by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in March and the follow-up decision to create a timeline of the expected changes to be carried out by the State Council, China Daily …