The Local Corporatist State and NGO Relations in China

This article examines the Chinese state's interactions and influences on the development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through a corporatist framework. It suggests that not only is the central state actively involved in the development of NGOs, but increasingly the successes of NGOs are determined by their interactions with the local state. We profile NGOs in Shanghai, of varying sizes, budgets and issue-areas, as a case study to understand the interplay between NGOs and the local state. The article further discusses reasons behind the growing shift from central to local state influences, and the potential future implications for state–NGO relations in China.     

NGOs in Hong Kong: The present and the future

This study analyzes NGOs’ influence in Hong Kong's political, social, and economic life. It addresses three questions. Firstly, what are their major roles and how effectively can they play them in society? Secondly, how active are these organizations? Finally, how confident are the NGO leaders about their organizations’ future? Based on a telephone survey conducted in August 1996, it finds that NGOs in Hong Kong are characterized not only by common functions but also some unique ones created by the territory's special status. In general, Hong Kong's NGOs are fairly active, which has little to do with the specialization, financial resources, and geographical foci of the organizations. Despite Beijing's explicit guarantee of the freedom of NGO activities, this study reveals that a clear majority of the NGO leaders expressed doubts about their organizations’ future.     

Burgeoning Transnationalism of Taiwan's Social Movement NGOs

So far as Taiwan's foreign relations are concerned, in parallel to the state's diplomacy and state-blessed Track-II maneuvering, there has emerged a more natural and meaningful phenomenon: i.e. grassroots solidarity between Taiwanese activist NGOs and their foreign counterparts, as a result of the joint pursuit of common social justice goals. It is high time that voluntary transnational activism was studied for a more comprehensive understanding of Taiwan's foreign relations in the era of democratization and surging activism of transnational social movement campaigns. This paper discusses the internationalization of Taiwan's social movement NGOs: their background, motivations, activities, and roles in transnational politics. Special attention is paid to the fact that while Taiwanese NGO activities in the transnational NGO community by nature ignore and disregard the state's diplomatic interests, both the quality and quantity of such activities have been severely restricted by Taiwan's poor diplomatic status in the inter-state community. This is a unique paradox not studied in the mainstream discourse on transnational civil society.     

Transnational Environmental Movement: impacts on the green civil society in China

China has become part of the global trend of solidarity and networking among grassroots non-governmental organisations across national borders. This paper examines the social and political implications for Chinese green civil society from the activities in the country by international environmental NGOs. Following a historical, statistical and geographical profile of transnational civil society's penetration in China, it investigates closely the material and ideational benefits received by Chinese activist organisations from transnational collaboration, against the complex and often nebulous interactions between Chinese NGOs, their global partners and the government authorities. The paper argues that transnational civil society's presence and achievements in China have helped legitimise and strengthen the burgeoning civil society in the country, and this is meaningful beyond the environmental field.     

Why Develop and Support Women's Organizations in Providing Legal Aid in China? Women's rights,women's organizations and legal aid in China

This article argues that women's organizations are central to legal aid for women in China. Chinese women would benefit if more women's legal aid organizations were developed and supported. There are currently too few such organizations, especially in rural areas. Their work challenges the public legal aid programme to develop a rights-based legal aid agenda to achieve greater gender equality through the protection of women's rights. They bring diverse women's perspectives which counter prevailing traditional patriarchal attitudes and male dominance in Chinese society. The emergence of autonomous women's organizations is also important because it helped to break the monopoly of the All China Women's Federation over women's perspectives, identities and interests in China. The article concludes that the competitive yet collaborative relationship between autonomous women's legal aid organizations and the All China Women's Federation is producing a definite and positive impact on gender equality through legal reform.     

Community Volunteers' Associations in Contemporary Tianjin: multipurpose partners of the party–state

The Community Volunteers' Associations (CVAs) are among the oldest grassroots organizations in contemporary China and as such provide a valuable case for a study of China's fast-growing non-profit sector. The author defines CVAs as multipurpose partners of the party–state in its pursuit of social stability and maintenance of legitimacy. In this role, the CVAs have served three major tasks. They have provided social services, acted as a link between the party–state and urban residents, and served as a medium for shaping values. The article explores the definition and redefinition of these tasks as well as the actual operations of the associations since the late 1980s.     

China's Socialization in the International Human Rights Regime: why did China reject the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court?

This article uses a hard law—the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court—to examine the depth of China's socialization in the international human rights regime and the relative weights of sovereignty and human rights norms in determining China's policy choices. It shows that the reasons for China's rejection of the Rome Statute are twofold. On the one hand, Chinese leaders have not fully internalized human rights norms, and they prioritize state sovereignty over human rights when making decisions. On the other hand, the legalized Rome Statute sets up an independent court with mandatory jurisdiction and grants the Prosecutor the ex officio right to investigate a crime. Such treaty provisions may have negative impacts on China's core sovereignty of territorial integration and regime security, thus imposing high sovereignty costs on China. Therefore, China resolutely voted against the Rome Statute, even if such an action made it a small minority outside the international mainstream. These findings indicate that China is still in a weak socialization stage and is not able to take on binding human rights and humanitarian obligations with high sovereignty costs.     

Seeking One's Day in Court: Chinese regime responsiveness to international legal norms on AIDS carriers' and pollution victims' rights

Over the last two decades, international actors have sought to diffuse repertoires of contentious practices, including rights-based litigation, to China. Multilateral organizations, foundations, and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have used funding and training programs conducted in China and at law schools abroad in order to raise the capacity of Chinese attorneys, NGOs, judges, and legal officials to improve rule of law and protection of human rights. In particular, international actors have worked with Chinese NGOs and state officials to found legal aid centers that provide information and advocacy to protect the rights of pollution victims and AIDS carriers. Legal aid centers, attorneys, and their financial backers seek to bring forward ‘impact litigation’ cases in the courts to establish model decisions for other plaintiffs, attorneys, and judges to follow. To date, environmental groups have enjoyed more success gaining access to the courts and in receiving favorable court judgments than have AIDS groups. In many cases involving AIDS victims, attorneys and legal aid centers seek compensation through alternative dispute resolution methods rather than litigation, which do not establish a legal precedent. This paper explores the reasons for the divergent outcomes of efforts to protect the rights of pollution victims and AIDS carriers in the courts. Primarily, the institutional particularities and contexts of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Public Health have allowed international legal norms related to the environment to take deeper root than those related to AIDS.     

Taiwan's Overseas Opposition Movement and Grassroots Diplomacy in the United States: the case of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs

This article examines the advocacy of overseas Taiwanese, particularly those in the United States, and their influence on US foreign policy and subsequently upon democratization in Taiwan. It concentrates particularly on the work of a Taiwanese non-governmental, non-profit advocacy group in the US—the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA). This article first composes an organizational history of FAPA by investigating the questions and processes of why and how FAPA was formed at the local level in the US. Further, it analyzes how the organization mobilized its relatively modest local resources in the US through grassroots diplomacy to promote Taiwan's visibility in the US, to influence the US government on Taiwan-related issues, and to attempt to impact upon Taiwan's democratization. Through the presentation of FAPA's organizational history, this article ultimately tries to answer the question of whether a non-governmental organization such as FAPA and its grassroots diplomacy has had an impact on US foreign policy and Taiwan's democratization. Besides adding to the existing scholarly literature on the causes of Taiwan's democratization, this study on the formation and effectiveness of FAPA seeks to contribute to studies on NGOs' or non-state actors' grassroots diplomacy and lobbying efforts on governmental policies. Because FAPA functioned as an important diplomatic channel for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan's first opposition party in the post-World War II era, before it matured into a fully-developed national opposition party in the 1990s and consequently unseated the Kuomintang (KMT) in 2000, this article is also an examination of an opposition movement's informal diplomacy.     

The Shequ experiment: grassroots political reform in urban China

Although China's economic reforms have been responsible for generating unprecedented growth, they have also been responsible for rendering the danwei, the foundation of the Chinese political and social system in urban areas, increasingly irrelevant. This has serious implications since danweis have been both the organizational base of the Communist Party and the vehicle through which social services were provided. Belatedly, the government has responded to this dilemma by experimenting with social organizations at the grassroots level in urban areas. One of the most significant experiments is the development of shequs. In the latter half of the 1990s, shequs were given more autonomy and responsibilities. Some of the more advanced shequs began to experiment with elections and social welfare functions previously provided by the government. The experiment, however, is still in an initial phase and shequs have not yet had a significant impact on the polity. Nonetheless, the Party and government have placed much importance on the shequ experiment. Their success will thus allow us some insight into the process of political development in urban China.     

论中国非政府组织（NGO）对农民工维权的影响与制约

该文从拓宽传统农民工权益维护研究的视角，将NGO作为政府维护农民工合法权益的重要补充，分析了NGO对农民工维权的影响与制约，并从政府角度对管理和规范农民工NGO提出相关对策和建议。     

Homeowners United: the attempt to create lateral networks of homeowners' associations in urban China

Under the slogan of ‘weiquan’ (defending our rights), homeowners in urban China are increasingly prepared to stand up for their rights of ownership, often through non-confrontational actions organized by homeowners' associations (yeweihui). There is also a growing concern for the need to create collective platforms on which homeowners' associations can support one another, muster their collective resources against powerful developers and lobby for status as legitimate organizations. The activists involved in this work are well aware of its political sensitivity in a regime that is antagonistic towards autonomous organizations, which are seen as posing a threat to its hegemony. Based on a case study in Guangzhou, this paper traces the tactics that housing activists have employed to create horizontal cooperation among homeowners' associations to defend their rights and devise ‘boundary-spanning’ strategies that exploit divisions within the state apparatus. The Guangzhou union of homeowners' associations can be regarded as an experiment in organizational infrastructure which has far-reaching implications. This study sheds light on the complexities as well as the institutional fluidity of state–society interactions in contemporary urban China.     

现阶段经济发展与科技创新状态的整体思考

陷入L型困局的实体经济发展,寄望于科技创新注入活力,目前并未取得实质性进展。而科技创新仍限定原始创新、集成创新和引进技术再创新这三种传统方式上,归属于资源思维模式。由经济社会的建模演绎,发现还存在有经济发展的制度思维模式,即把产权制度由私产权转为公产权,科技创新的方向也由传统方式转变到为公产权经济提供低成本劳动平台和用人少的技术方案,同时指出中产人群可以成为公产权经济的主要依靠力量。     

关于基层党组织发展力的思考

增强基层党组织发展力,是加强和改进新形势下党的建设的现实需要,也是党更好地贯彻落实科学发展观的基础。基层党组织发展力包括发展民主的能力,统筹协调的能力,开拓创新的能力,知人善任的能力,维护稳定的能力和驾驭网络媒体的能力。"六种能力"构成了基层党组织发展力的基本要件。     

在华外国非政府组织管理机制创新研究

改革开放以来,来华的非政府组织大量增多,对于我国的经济和社会发展都起到了积极促进作用。然而由于成立宗旨、背景以及价值取向与国内非政府组织的不同。从国家安全的角度考量,对在华外国非政府组织的管理还需区别对待。加之我国现行有关非政府组织的立法及管理机制还存在一定的滞后性,影响了在华外国非政府组织社会作用的发挥。本文认为,有必要对现行有关在华外国非政府组织的管理机制进行创新,相关制度的重构主要包括在华外国非政府组织的准入制度、公益法人认证制度等。     

循环经济发展中的公众参与:问题与思考

循环经济的发展离不开公众的参与。但是,我国公众在参与意识和参与理念上与循环经济发展的要求仍有很大差距;在参与主体上相对单一,民间环保组织参与不足;在参与内容上过于狭窄,公众参与权有限;在参与方式和参与途径上亦难以有效满足公众参与的要求。因此,亟需加强对公众参与意识和环境保护理念的培养和教育,促进民间环保组织的发展并充分发挥其在公众参与中的积极作用,扩大公众参与的权利,并不断拓展公众参与的方式与途径。     

NGO在公共卫生服务中的角色分析

公共卫生服务是公共服务的内容之一。虽然公共卫生服务主要是政府的职责,但也是可以通过多种组织形态来提供的。本文分析了国家级NGO参与公共卫生项目的数量、比例和领域,提出了公共卫生服务中NGO的补充角色及其具体体现,包括在人力资源、资金、特殊领域和内容、特殊地区和人群以及服务模式探索等方面的补充作用,并从筹资和服务两个方面总结了NGO参与的方式。基于此,作者提出NGO和政府在公共卫生领域良性互动的模式。     

Married Women's Rights to Land in China's Traditional Farming Areas

Women's land rights are one of the major issues of the rural land contract in contemporary China. Married women in relatively developed rural areas and under marriage misfortune have elicited much academic and public attention. However, less attention has been devoted to studying married women in traditional farming areas where they are still relatively poor. This paper focuses on women's land rights in their maiden village in traditional farming areas, and shows, based on an analysis of a case study combined with a questionnaire survey, that married women's land rights tend to be retained in their parent village with the implementation of new policy and land contract laws, but that they have almost no rights in their maiden families after marriage, due to the influence of traditional marriage notions and customs. Given the situation of the political and legal framework, it is necessary to further probe, by reviewing past practice and experience, how to ensure women's rights through restricted and specific land readjustment, which may be a realistic and valid approach.     

The Discursive Turn: deliberative governance in China's urbanized villages

This article examines local governance and citizen participation in China through unstructured public deliberation. Case studies from two urbanized villages show that unstructured, informal public deliberation potentially leads to more autonomy and diverse channels for pursuing citizens' appeals at the local level, along with increased consideration given by local government to grassroots requests relating to practical governance matters. Although taking place outside formal political institutions, unstructured public deliberation can exert influences on policy or decision-making inside government organizations through well-coordinated transmission mechanisms between the public and the local government. During this process, well-resourced community organizations and actors play a vital role through their bridging functions to produce dynamic relations of deliberative governance. This bridging role serves to deliver deliberative outcomes from the public sphere to the decision-making authorities, and it also includes the collection of feedback on policy as well as the means to negotiate for policy adjustment by facilitating a policy implementation process.     

中央群团改革视域下地方妇联购买服务的实践逻辑及其理论扩展--基于对上海H区的经验观察

作为党密切联系群众、促进社会整合的重要抓手,各级妇联组织在中央群团改革精神指引下展开了一系列改革实践。本文以上海市H区妇联的改革实践为例,在对既有理论加以反思的基础上,立足群团组织的核心属性尝试构建一种以"中间领域治理"为核心特点的分析框架,以揭示H区妇联改革实践的行动逻辑与实践策略。研究发现,在向社会力量购买服务的实践中,H区妇联通过规范化制度、专业化方法、多主体联动、长效化机制等行动举措,推动了妇联传统服务模式的转变、组织属性的重塑以及服务群众能力的提升,形成了一种"群团借道社会"的实践逻辑,通过联同社会力量促进了个体与国家之间组织通道的再造。本案例对当下深化群团组织改革具有实践价值与参考意义,既是对十九届四中全会强调的构建社会治理体系和治理共同体的积极响应,也提供了一种深化群社协同共治、推动国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的策略机制。