Title: The emergence of NGOs in China and their transnational linkages: implications for domestic reform
Abstract: Abstract In addressing the question of how China's rapid socioeconomic transformation is changing the nature of its international engagement we need to move beyond a traditional focus on state-centric analysis. Obviously a major stimulus for China's international engagement over the past 25 years of reform and opening has come from non-state economic activity. Growing economic interdependence, accelerated after China's accession into the World Trade Organization, provides the strongest argument in favour of a peaceful rise of China scenario in which both regional and global security are enhanced rather than threatened. Far less attention, however, has been given to the role and influence of Chinese non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their transnational linkages. I argue in this article that in order to obtain a more comprehensive picture of China's ongoing process of reform and opening to the outside world we need to incorporate a civil society dimension into our analysis. This is of particular relevance to ongoing foreign policy debates over democracy and human rights promotion in China. Indeed, in the absence of a more detailed understanding of current developments taking place at the grassroots, international support for progressive reform runs the risk of undermining positive change from below. Notes 1. Many Chinese terms have been used to describe civil society including shimin shehui (city people's society), wenming shehui (civilised society), and minjian shehui (people based society). In this article I use the term gongmin shehui (citizen's society) because it is now in common usage. 2. The few studies that look at the role of NGOs in China from an international relations perspective include Hamrin (2003 Hamrin , Carol Lee , 2003 . 'China's Invisible Social Revolution and Sino–American Cultural Relations' , in Christopher Marsh and June Teufel Dreyer (eds) , US–China Relations in the Twenty-first Century ( Lanham : Lexington Books ). [Google Scholar]), Economy (2004 Economy, Elizabeth. 2004. The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar]), and Foot (2000 Foot, Rosemary. 2000. Rights Beyond Borders: The Global Community and the Struggle over Human Rights in China, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). For a general survey of international support for NGOs in China see Bentley (2003 Bentley, Julia Greenwood. 2003. 'The Role of International Support for Civil Society Organizations in China'. Harvard Asia Quarterly, 7(1): 11–20. [Google Scholar]). For a study on transnational NGOs in Taiwan see Chen (2001 Chen, Jie. 2001. 'Burgeoning Transnationalism of Taiwan's Social Movement NGOs'. Journal of Contemporary China, 10(29): 613–44. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). 3. A similar argument can be made in relation to the promotion of human rights. See Hamrin (2003 Hamrin , Carol Lee , 2003 . 'China's Invisible Social Revolution and Sino–American Cultural Relations' , in Christopher Marsh and June Teufel Dreyer (eds) , US–China Relations in the Twenty-first Century ( Lanham : Lexington Books ). [Google Scholar]) and Wan (2001 Wan, Ming. 2001. Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations: Defining and Defending National Interests, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 4. This resonates with the literature on the role of advocacy groups in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union before the revolutions in 1989. See Michnik (1985 Michnik , Adam , 1985 . Letters from Prison and Other Essays , trans. Maya Latynski ( Berkeley : University of California Press ). [Google Scholar]). Self censorship was also practiced by NGOs in Indonesia before the fall of Soeharto. See Ganie-Rochman (2002 Ganie-Rochman, Meuthia. 2002. An Uphill Struggle: Advocacy NGOs under Soeharto's New Order, Jakarta: LabSocio. [Google Scholar]). 5. There now exists a growing literature on China's more independent NGOs. See Litzinger (2004 Litzinger , Ralph , 2004 . 'The Mobilization of "Nature": Perspectives from North-west Yunnan' , China Quarterly , 178 ( June ): 488 – 504 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 6. For a good description of China's regulatory environment see Wang et al. (2001 Wang Ming , Liu Guo Han and He Jian Yu , 2001 . Zhongguo shetuan gaige – congzhen fuxuan zhedao shetuan xuanzhe (Chinese Society Reform: From Government Choice to Social Choice) shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, October . [Google Scholar]). 7. Unless otherwise stated, the information in this section is drawn from interviews with both grassroots and international NGOs during my fieldwork trips to Beijing, Qinghai and Yunnan in October 2003, April 2004 and October 2004. 8. For example Chinese NGOs were present at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, in 2002, and at the UNAIDS Conference in Bangkok in 2004. 9. For a fuller account of this campaign see Morton (2006 Morton , Katherine , 2006 . 'Transnational Advocacy at the Grassroots: Opportunities and Risks' , China Information , forthcoming . [Google Scholar]). 10. These shawls can fetch up to US$17,000 on the market. 11. This policy was first announced at the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November 2002.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-11-08
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 47
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