2015-06-03
Dozens of lawyers penned an open letter on Wednesday to China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), calling on the government to shelve a draft law targeting foreign-funded nongovernment groups.
More than 30 lawyers signed the letter, which slams the draft Overseas NGO Management Law as poorly drafted, too broad, lacking adequate time for public consultation, and granting overly broad powers to the the government.
Under the draft law, all overseas-based NGOs must obtain approval from police before they can operate in China, and must hire at least half of their personnel from a government-approved agency, subjecting their operations to near-constant surveillance.
The law would also shut off a key avenue of funding for domestic China NGOs that don’t win the backing of an existing government body and register as for-profit companies instead.
Nonsponsored NGOs would effectively be barred from receiving overseas funding for their work, which includes AIDS education and advocacy work, women’s rights campaigning, and anti-discrimination campaigns.
“One of the government’s main aims in forcing government registration on NGOs to prevent their infiltration by ‘foreign forces,'” lawyer Huang Sha, who signed the letter, told RFA on Wednesday.
“But they should take the view that the government has a vested interest in NGOs as a means to work for the welfare of ordinary people, and they should take better care of both NGOs and the people,” Huang said.
“That’s why we don’t accept this draft law … it has too many clauses forbidding things, and the terms in which it is drafted are very vague,” he said.
“The government’s drafting is very sloppy, and there are plenty of obstacles for NGOs [in it].”
