By Stanley Lubman

The Chinese party-state is tightening the vise on both foreign and domestic NGOs, sending strong new signals of its determination to repress unwelcome foreign influences and activities that foster the spread of ”Western values.” A draft Foreign NGO Management Law released last month doesn’t just threaten to damage Chinese civil society, but also demonstrates strong willingness to use legislation to assert authoritarian governance without procedural justice.

In addition to controlling foreign NGOs, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party Central Committee just issued a new regulation that requires all domestic NGOs -- of which there are more than 500,000 registered and an estimated 1.5 million unregistered -- to establish “Party groups.” It is too early to know what this will mean, but it is clearly an additional extension of Party control.

Since the 1980s foreign nongovernmental organizations have been contributing money, manpower, technology and expertise to address China’s many development challenges. Over the years the responses of the party-state, especially to NGOs that promote Western values, have ranged from tolerance to suspicion. Foreign NGOs have never been legitimized with a clear basis for their activities, and Beijing has been unsure about how to permit some organizations to operate while discouraging others. Regulation has been uneven and enforcement has been inconsistent. Reports have circulated over the last year of increased surveillance, intrusion into offices, and harassment of NGO representatives resident in China. The new draft Law expressly regularizes supervision and close inquiry into the work of all foreign NGOs.

The publication of the draft Law initiated a thirty-day period of public comment, which has now expired. The flood of comments has included strong opinions not only from the foreign press but also from Chinese scholars and lawyers, foreign scholars of Chinese law, and diverse organizations like Human Rights Watch and the American Bar Association. Some NGOs now doubt whether they can remain active in China.