Fear of N.G.O.s, in Beijing and Beyond

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/sunday/fear-of-ngos-in-beijing-and-beyond.html

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The law that China passed on Thursday imposing stern controls on foreign nongovernmental organizations is deplorable but, sadly, not surprising. Illiberal and authoritarian governments are inherently allergic to civil society and, more broadly, to any institutions they don’t control.

The law, which goes into effect next January, requires that foreign groups find an official Chinese sponsor and register with the police. More than 7,000 such groups would have to comply, according to Chinese news reports, and their operations and finances would be subject to police examination and office searches at any time.

Recent years have witnessed what the Carnegie Endowment terms a “viral-like spread of new laws” around the world designed to limit or shut down the activities of nongovernmental organizations that promote human rights, democracy, the environment, education and other causes. China had plenty of examples of such laws to study, most notably Russia’s noxious law requiring groups that get any foreign money to register as “foreign agents,” a term that in Russia is taken to mean “spies.”

Like the other governments that have imposed such crackdowns, the Chinese government claimed its foreign organizations “management” law was an effort to protect friendly organizations while curbing political or religious activities that damage China’s “national interests” or “ethnic unity.” In the context of President Xi Jinping’s continuing efforts to tighten control over Chinese society and suppress criticism of Communist Party rule, that could mean just about anything that is not state approved or state sponsored.

Exactly how the police will wield power under this law will become known when it goes into effect. But the intent is already clear: to create a legalistic tool to intimidate foreign organizations or shut them down. Many are likely to simply quit China and cancel grants to domestic civic organizations, cutting important health, education and human rights programs.

The Obama administration was quick to criticize the law, arguing that it would reduce contacts between Americans and Chinese. Many countries will doubtlessly stay silent.

India, Egypt, Hungary and dozens of other countries have either passed or proposed similar laws in recent years to curtail the activities of nongovernmental groups. There are various reasons for the rise in these laws, experts say, including resentment of Western ideas and influence among developing and post-Communist countries, since many major international groups are based in Western democracies, and a fear among less-than-democratic regimes of the power of independent organizations to fuel opposition to their rule.

The great majority of foreign organizations are engaged in work that provides services or strengthens civil society, which is crucial to developing an effective government and an engaged populace. That seems to be exactly what President Xi fears.