The rulers of China have always seen its history as binary. Long divided,
the empire will unite, goes a famous saying; long united, it will
divide. Today, under the Communist Party, fear of division is strong.
Determined to avoid the fate of the Soviet Union, party leaders strive
to hold China together.
But the country is no longer a socialist paradise where the party dictates and the masses toil. A bourgeois class of perhaps 300m people has emerged—and they have their own views on the sort of place China should become. At the same time, the party has retreated from most people’s daily lives, no longer even pretending to provide cradle-to-grave benefits. Many weaker, poorer members of society are suffering.
Enter the Chinese NGO. A vast array of new non-governmental organisations are trying to meet both middle-class aspirations to participate and also society’s need for services (see article).
Some 500,000 NGOs have registered over the past 25 years, a figure that some think will double over the next couple of years, as rules are relaxed. Many of these, admittedly, are quasi-state bodies, like an official youth foundation, or businesses in disguise, like private schools, but a growing number are the real deal.
And a further 1.5m-odd NGOs operate without being registered, including some that the party suspects of being too independent or confrontational. They include everything from self-help groups for the parents of autistic children to outfits defending the rights of migrant workers to house-church groups looking after the elderly.
Read more: China’s future: Enter the Chinese NGO | The Economist
But the country is no longer a socialist paradise where the party dictates and the masses toil. A bourgeois class of perhaps 300m people has emerged—and they have their own views on the sort of place China should become. At the same time, the party has retreated from most people’s daily lives, no longer even pretending to provide cradle-to-grave benefits. Many weaker, poorer members of society are suffering.
Enter the Chinese NGO. A vast array of new non-governmental organisations are trying to meet both middle-class aspirations to participate and also society’s need for services (see article).
Some 500,000 NGOs have registered over the past 25 years, a figure that some think will double over the next couple of years, as rules are relaxed. Many of these, admittedly, are quasi-state bodies, like an official youth foundation, or businesses in disguise, like private schools, but a growing number are the real deal.
And a further 1.5m-odd NGOs operate without being registered, including some that the party suspects of being too independent or confrontational. They include everything from self-help groups for the parents of autistic children to outfits defending the rights of migrant workers to house-church groups looking after the elderly.
Read more: China’s future: Enter the Chinese NGO | The Economist
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