Non-governmental organisations in China : post-2008 expansion and the new challenges

NGOs (non-governmental organisations) are perceived by the Chinese government as a source of political risks as well as indispensable gap-gap fillers for addressing the increasingly serious social problem. To mitigate the political threats, each NGO has been put under the supervision of at least one government/party unit. However, this personalised control system also created several organisational and governance problems that have seriously constrained NGOs' capacity to effectively serve the public. After the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, several changes have emerged in China's NGO landscape. The most important change is a rapid rise in the availability of domestic source of funding for NGOs, which has reduced the perceived political risks associated with utilising NGOs. These changes point to a possible shift in regulatory regime in which NGOs in China will be regulated through a more open and institutionalised management system; the Chinese government is however unlikely to keep its hands completely off.