Chinese NGOs: Thriving Amidst Adversity

Abstract

Notwithstanding media reports about how the authoritarian state in China has repressed its civil society, China’s NGO sector has grown significantly in number over the past two decades. In fact, the state has played a decisive role in the emergence of the NGO sector in China, which is also highly diverse. It includes both organizations that are officially registered as nonprofit organizations and those that do not possess this status; it also includes organizations that should be more properly viewed as state institutions and those organizations that meet the conventional criteria for NGOs. However, despite the state’s positive contributions to the development of China’s NGO sector, it continues to view NGOs with suspicion and has adopted legal, political, and practical measures to control China’s NGOs. A significant consequence of these control measures is that many Chinese NGOs are unable to attain official nonprofit registration status, thereby negatively impacting their social and political legitimacy. This fact, in combination with the state’s overwhelming legitimacy, makes it all the more important for individual Chinese NGOs to reach out to the state, thereby affirming the value of state linkages. In recent years, the rising demand for rural migrant workers to contribute to China’s modernization and urbanization has highlighted the institutionalized discrimination against this population group. Consequently, migrant NGOs have emerged to advocate on behalf of migrant workers and their dependents as well as to serve their needs. These NGOs are keenly aware of the value of state linkages. Some of these organizations have also been quite effective. Therefore, a close look at these organizations can help us understand how China’s NGOs have been able to achieve their goals while allowing us to gain an in-depth understanding of migrant NGOs in contemporary China.