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Dependent Interdependence: The Complicated Dance of Government–Nonprofit Relations in China

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An Erratum to this article was published on 06 October 2016

Abstract

This article examines the evolving pattern of government–nonprofit relations in China and assesses how this relationship seems likely to evolve in the years ahead. To do so, it documents the diverse types of institutions this sector contains, the considerable scale of institutions it already includes, and the significant shifts that have occurred as the state seeks to take advantage of the important contributions the nonprofit sector is making, while seeking to retain a degree of control over nonprofit operations. Of particular note is the variety of tools the government has deployed to support the nonprofit sector and the remaining issues the sector faces as it finds its way in the highly constrained atmosphere of this biggest remaining socialist country.

Résumé

Ce chapitre examine le modèle évolutif des relations entre le gouvernement et les organisations à but non lucratif en Chine et évalue comment il évoluera vraisemblablement dans les années à venir. Pour ce faire, il décrit les différents types d’institutions de ce secteur, l’ampleur considérable des institutions qu’il comprend déjà et les changements significatifs qui ont eu lieu alors que l’État cherche à tirer parti des importantes contributions apportées par le secteur à but non lucratif tout en cherchant à maintenir un degré de contrôle sur les activités à but non lucratif. Il convient de souligner la variété des outils que le gouvernement a déployée pour soutenir le secteur à but non lucratif et les autres problèmes auxquels est confronté le secteur en se retrouvant dans l’atmosphère fortement rigide de ce plus grand pays socialiste.

Zusammenfassung

Dieses Kapitel untersucht das sich weiterentwickelnde Modell der Beziehungen zwischen der Regierung und dem gemeinnützigen Sektor in China und schätzt ab, wie sich diese Beziehung in den kommenden Jahren voraussichtlich entwickeln wird. Dazu werden die unterschiedlichen Typen von Institutionen in diesem Sektor dokumentiert, die beträchtliche Zahl von Institutionen, die bereits bestehen, und die bedeutenden Änderungen, zu denen es gekommen ist, weil der Staat versucht, von den wichtigen Beiträgen des gemeinnützigen Sektors zu profitieren und gleichzeitig eine gewisse Kontrolle über die Aktivitäten des gemeinnützigen Sektors zu wahren. Besonders hervorzuheben ist die Vielzahl der Instrumente, die die Regierung eingesetzt hat, um den gemeinnützigen Sektor zu unterstützen, und die verbleibenden Probleme, mit denen der Sektor in dem äußerst beschränkten Umfeld dieses größten nach wie vor sozialistischen Landes konfrontiert wird.

Resumen

El presente capítulo examina el patrón evolutivo de las relaciones gobierno-organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro en China y evalúa cómo esta relación parece probable que evolucione en los próximos años. Para hacerlo, documenta los diversos tipos de instituciones que contiene este sector, la considerable escala de instituciones que ya incluye, y los cambios significativos que se han producido a medida que el estado trata de aprovechar las importantes contribuciones que el sector de organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro está realizando, tratando al mismo tiempo de retener un grado de control sobre las operaciones de dichas organizaciones. Cabe destacar la variedad de herramientas que el gobierno ha implantado para apoyar al sector de organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro y las cuestiones pendientes a las que se enfrenta el sector a medida que va encontrando su camino en el ambiente sumamente restringido del mayor país que sigue siendo socialista.

摘要

本文说明了政府和非盈利机构之间的合作关系的发展, 首先概述了非盈利领域的范围和结构以及志愿性工作, 然后解释了公共领域和非盈利性机构之间合作关系演化的重要步骤。文章描述了非盈利领域在发展过程中出现的所谓的两极化以及非盈利领域和国家之间的合作在过去的重要性。 为了容纳各种范围广泛的具有不同宗教背景和社会背景的非盈利性机构, 荷兰为政府和非盈利性机构之间的合作创造了一个供非盈利性机构提供服务并影响政策形成的复杂机制。但是, 这个领域现在完全是支离破碎的状态, 已几乎没什么共享认同可言。 矛盾的是, 荷兰的非盈利性领域由于过去的成功而降低其被认为是当前社会问题的解决方案的可能性。

ملخص

يفحص هذا الفصل النمط المتطور للحكومة - العلاقات الغير ربحية في الصين ويقوم بتقييم كيف أن هذه العلاقة تبدو من المرجح أن تتطور في السنوات القادمة. للقيام بذلك، فإنه يوثق أنواع متنوعة من المؤسسات ويتضمن هذا القطاع، حجم كبير من المؤسسات التي تضمها بالفعل، والتحولات الكبيرة التي حدثت في الوقت الذي تسعى الدولة إلى الإستفادة من المساهمات الهامة الذي يقوم بها القطاع الغير ربحي في حين تسعى إلى الإبقاء على درجة من السيطرة على العمليات الغير ربحي. من الجدير بالذكر هو مجموعة متنوعة من الأدوات نشرتها الحكومة لدعم القطاع الغير ربحي والقضايا المتبقية التي يواجهها القطاع كما تجد طريقها في الجو المقيد للغاية من أكبر دولة إشتراكية متبقية.

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Notes

  1. According to the National Statistics Bureau, in 2013, total full-time employment was 770 million, and the tertiary industry contributed 46.1 % of the GDP. The numbers of employment of nonprofit sector and its percentage to total employment in the tertiary industry are from 2013 Social Service Development Statistical Bulletin by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

  2. The five categories are: economy, scientific research, social undertakings, charity, and comprehensive. The fourteen sub-categories are: industrial and commercial services, agriculture and rural development, scientific research, education, health care, culture, sports, ecological environment, social services, law, religion, professions and vocational organizations, international and foreign organizations, and others.

  3. The eight mass organizations are All China Federation of Trade Unions, The Communist Youth League of China, All-China Women's Federation, China Association for Science and Technology, All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots, All-China Youth Federation, and All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce.

  4. The fourteen organizations are China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC), Chinese Writers' Association (CWA), All-China Journalists' Association, The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF), China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, China Law Society, Red Cross Society of China, Chinese Society of Workers’ Ideological and Political Work, Western Returned Scholars Association Chinese Overseas-Educated Scholars Association (WRSA), Alumni Association of the Huangpu Military Academy, and The National Association of Vocation of China.

  5. There are about 200 privileged associations at provincial level: 11 artists’ associations affiliated to the CWA; the provincial literary and art associations; and the provincial writers' associations.

  6. These regulations included: (a) the amendment of Regulations on the Registration and Management of Associations (shetuan dengji guanli tiaoli) (1989) issued in 1998; (b) the Provisional Regulations on the Registration and Management of Private Non-Enterprise Units (minban feiqiye danwei dengji guanli zanxing tiaoli) issued in 1998; and (c) the Regulations on Administration of Foundations (jijinhui guanli tiaoli) issued in 2004. The other relevant laws and regulations issued in this period include Law on Donations for Public Welfare in 1999; the Law on the Promotion of Privately run Schools in 2002; Nonprofit Organization Accounting System in 2005; and Enterprise Income Tax in 2007.

  7. Decisions on the State Council Institutional Restructuring and Functions Transformation (guanyu guowuyuan jigou gaige he zhineng zhuanbian fang'an de jueding).

  8. The main government agencies involved in human service provision include: Administrations of Civil Affairs (services to poverty population, disadvantaged elderly, orphans, etc.); Administrations of Education (education assistance); Health and Family Planning Commission (medical assistance, maternal and children services); Justice Bureau (community correction); Housing and Urban–Rural Development (affordable housing) etc. Mass organizations participating in human service provision included: the China Disabled Persons' Federation (services to persons with disabilities); the All-China Women's Federation (services to children and mothers); the Communist Youth League (education and other services for juveniles); and the Red Cross (medical assistance) etc.

  9. The China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) was founded by the All China Youth Federation in March 1989. It is a national public foundation registered at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China. The foundation is dedicated to youth development. Project Hope was launched by CYDF in October, 1989. It is one of the most extensive, influential, and widely participated philanthropic programs in China.

  10. See the China Youth Development Foundation website at: http://en.cydf.org.cn/OurHistory/.

  11. See the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund website at: http://www.cctf.org.cn/cljh/index.html.

  12. See the Chinese Youth Volunteers Association website at: http://www.zgzyz.org.cn/.

  13. See the New Citizen Program website at: http://www.xingongmin.org.cn/a/guanyuwomen/.

  14. See the Qinghai Gesanghua Education's Aid website at: http://www.gesanghua.org/AboutUs.

  15. "4" means four grandparents, "2"means parents, "1" means one child.

  16. The social insurance programs include: endowment insurance, unemployment insurance, medical insurance, maternity insurance, and occupational injury insurance (or work-related insurance). Social welfare programs in China provide funds and services to ensure the livelihood of specific senior citizens, orphans, and persons with disabilities who are in extraordinarily straitened circumstances.

  17. The hukou system was built in the early 1950s in China. Every Chinese person has a hukou showing whether they belong to rural or non-rural China. The system results in attaching a person to their place of origin and controlling movement. The Hukou system has been under reform since the 1980s.

  18. Included here are the following laws: Article 9.26 of the Enterprise Income Tax Law of the People's Republic of China (2007); The Regulations for The Implementation of The Individual Income Tax Law of The People's Republic of China (2011); The Welfare Donations Law of the People's Republic of China (1999); and The Provisional Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Value-Added Tax (2008).

  19. China Welfare Lottery Issuance Management Center (WLIMC), a public institution directly under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, is in charge of the issuance of welfare lottery funds in China since 1987. According to the statistics by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, WLIMC has issued RMB 412 billion welfare lotteries and accumulated RMB 138.4 billion in public welfare funds from 1987 to 2009.

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Acknowledgments

This article was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Project No. 14BZZ069). Zhang Jiali, Ma Jingyu, and Li Cheng, Xu Gang, graduate students of the School of Public Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, also contributed to this article. Special thanks are also due to Dr. Lester M. Salamon for extremely helpful comments and editing suggestions on prior drafts. This article was prepared within the framework of a subsidy granted to the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation by the Government of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the Global Competitiveness Program. None of the organizations with which the author is affiliated or that have supported her work bears any responsibility for any errors or views expressed here. That is the author’s own responsibility.

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This paper is part of the Special Issue: Unlikely Partners? Evolving Government–Nonprofit Relationships, East and West.

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11266-016-9795-z.

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Yuanfeng, Z. Dependent Interdependence: The Complicated Dance of Government–Nonprofit Relations in China. Voluntas 26, 2395–2423 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-015-9645-4

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