A Russian-style NGO crackdown in China
Beijing appears to be following the Kremlin’s lead in a campaign to sever NGO’s from foreign sources of funding. The Christian Science Monitor reports: It began with a tax notice for $200,000. Three days later, on July 17, officials raided the group’s Beijing office and seized its computers. Then, just before dawn on July 29, ...
Beijing appears to be following the Kremlin's lead in a campaign to sever NGO's from foreign sources of funding. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
It began with a tax notice for $200,000. Three days later, on July 17, officials raided the group's Beijing office and seized its computers. Then, just before dawn on July 29, police detained its founder, Xu Zhiyong at his home
On the same day, government officials went to the office of Yi Ren Ping, another nongovernmental organization, and confiscated copies of its newsletter on the grounds that it didn't have a publishing license.[...] The two NGOs are among a growing number here using the law to hold authorities to account on issues such as food safety, patient rights, and illegal detention.
Beijing appears to be following the Kremlin’s lead in a campaign to sever NGO’s from foreign sources of funding. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
It began with a tax notice for $200,000. Three days later, on July 17, officials raided the group’s Beijing office and seized its computers. Then, just before dawn on July 29, police detained its founder, Xu Zhiyong at his home
On the same day, government officials went to the office of Yi Ren Ping, another nongovernmental organization, and confiscated copies of its newsletter on the grounds that it didn’t have a publishing license.[…] The two NGOs are among a growing number here using the law to hold authorities to account on issues such as food safety, patient rights, and illegal detention.
But they share another common thread: Both received grants from American and other foreign donors. The tax fine for Open Constitution Initiative, the group headed by Mr. Xu, was assessed largely on a donation from Yale Law School. Xu, a lawyer and elected legislator, is being detained on suspicion of tax evasion, according to an OCI official.
The harassment of these and other foreign-funded NGOs in Beijing has raised fears of a Russian-style squeeze on civil society. Since 2006, Russia has stripped the tax-free status of many foreign foundations and forced NGOs to report their activities in exhaustive detail, while accusing foreign-funded human rights groups of being Trojan horses for Western powers. It recently amended its NGO law, easing some of these controls.
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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