Bigger role from new law pleases charities
Print Edition
WHEN legislators passed China’s first Charity Law in March, Zhou Weihong took action in Shanghai.
He set up a charity that has already helped more than 60 poor children in the northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang go to school, and with the law taking effect on Thursday, the charity projects that it will help more than a hundred youngsters next year.
The new law eases restrictions on the fundraising and operational activities of charity groups, promising tax benefits, and improved supervision.
It is the first time that the way in which charities are registered has been written into law, giving approved charities more freedom and credibility.
The law was well received by charity groups. “The new law encouraged us and made us more determined to carry out our plans,” said Zhou, who is also president of another charity that helps children in Xinjiang access education as well as experiencing urban life.
China had about 670,000 registered social organizations at of the end of June, including 5,038 foundations, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Annual donations to registered charities in China soared from 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) to 100 billion yuan over the past decade.
The charity sector will support the poverty alleviation campaign, whose goal is to lift all rural residents above the poverty line by 2020.
As of the end of 2015, 55.7 million rural Chinese were still classed as impoverished, meaning they had a per capita net income of less than 2,800 yuan a year.
Li Bian, co-founder of AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth, believes the Charity Law will create more job opportunities and its impact will be similar to the passage of the Corporation Law in 1993.
“Fifteen years after China rolled out its first corporation law, it has become the second largest economy in the world and, it is expected, that in another 15 years, it will have the largest number of social organizations in the world,” he said.
Beijing has more than 30,000 registered social organizations, employing 60,000. With total assets of about 19 billion yuan, the charity industry has become one of the major forces of social economic development in the capital, said Dong Minghui, deputy director of the city’s Civil Affairs Bureau.
The implementation of the Charity Law will let social organizations play a bigger role in social governance and promote development and innovation in areas overlooked by market and government investment, said Wang Zhenyao, dean of China Philanthropy Research Institute under Beijing Normal University.
He said the enforcement of the law will upgrade China’s charity industry but more specific measures and standards were needed.
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