Civil Society and the Anatomy of a Rural NGO

Abstract

More than 230,000 non-governmental organizations have been officially registered in China in quarter century since onset of post-Mao reforms.1 Involved in wide range of socioeconomic activities and issues, such organizations represent an important new development in state-society relations, one that has begun to attract attention among China scholars.2 In late 1980s, interest in Chinese NGOs was spurred by onset of democratic transitions in several countries in Soviet bloc.3 Propelled by Habermasian revolution in study of state-society in East and Central Europe, China scholars asked whether proliferation of non-governmental bodies heralded rise of that might eventually challenge political monopoly of Chinese Communist Party-state.4 In event, wave of optimism that greeted prospect of an emergent civil society in China lost much of its luster in repressive aftermath of 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, when state summarily shut down number of newborn societal organizations. There followed almost decade of healthy skepticism about relevance of Western-derived civil society models in contemporary China.5 In 1990s growing number of scholars employed models to capture state's continued domination of non-statal organizations through such indirect mechanisms as government sponsorship, overlapping leadership, co-optation and state licensing.6 Empirical investigations of number of new business and commercial associations, for example, revealed complex, hybrid forms of state influence, with strength of governmental supervision and control varying from group to group. The terms used to describe these organizations varied widely. Kang Xiaoguang called business associations banguan, banmin (semi-official, semi-civil);7 Jonathan Unger referred to them as a hybrid of socialist corporatism and clientelism;8 Margaret Pearson referred to the merger of state and business;9 Dorothy Solinger spoke of business-state collaboration;10 Ray Yep and David Wank noted existence of symbiotic relations with state;11 while Kenneth Foster referred to business associations as embedded within state agencies.12 A feature common to almost all of these business and commercial associations is that they were perceived to lie closer to statist end of continuum between state domination and societal autonomy. This report seeks to contribute to literature on social organizations in post-reform China by examining case of single rural non-governmental organization, Sanchuan Development Association (SDA) of Guanting Township in Qinghai Province. SDA is relatively autonomous, indigenous NGO of type that appears to be popping up with increasing frequency in rural China, but that to date has not been widely reported on or taken account of in civil society/corporatism literature.13 Unlike most research sites selected for study by Western scholars, which tend to be clustered either in coastal urban locales (Guangzhou, Shanghai, Yantai, Xiamen, Tianjin, etc.) or in relatively affluent rural areas (Xiaoshan, Wenzhou, Zhoushan, Yiwu), Guanting lies in poor, remote, mountainous region of northwest China. Also unlike most associations studied by Western scholars, SDA is neither business group nor trade association. It is devoted exclusively to local poverty alleviation and community development projects, ranging from school construction, public sanitation and water conservation to horticulture and animal husbandry. As true minjian (people's) NGO, SDA differs from state-dominated corporatist bodies described in literature. Almost wholly autonomous and self-directed, it is only loosely and intermittently linked to state. And finally, unlike previously described organizations, SDA derives its funding primarily from international philanthropic sources. In its distinctive constellation of organizational characteristics, SDA exemplifies an increasingly common-but hitherto understudied-genre of Chinese grass-roots organizations. …