Even though there was no law governing their operation in China until January 1, foreign NGOs have been operating in China for quite some time. Typically, they were either registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs or operated with the approval of provincial or local officials. The new law now requires all NGOs to register with the Ministry of Public Security.
According to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, as of February 9, thirty-two organizations have successfully registered, with all of them being in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong province.
The first announcement of successful registrations was posted on the website of the Ministry of Public Security (Chinese) on January 24.
Successful registrants include:
- World Economic Forum
- Save the Children
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Paulson Foundation.
- Hong Kong Chinese General Chamber of Commerce
- Federation of Hong Kong Industries
- Taiwan Trade Center
- Save the Children
In other words, so far it is industry and commerce groups, plus a few of the global foundations.
A great place to start in keeping track of successful registrations is this NGO Directory produced published on the China Development Brief website. It’s particularly useful because the list can be filtered by type (Chinese/international), region, sector, and name.
