Author Archive:
Karla Simon
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …