Pushing a Foreign Agenda in an Authoritarian Regime? INGOs and Government Relations in China

• In Event: 598 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Organizations and Politics in China

Abstract

This project examines the influx of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) into China since the country’s opening to the outside world began in the early 1980s. Extant theory suggests that the Chinese government should either reject INGO entry or seek to control INGOs centrally. The presence of over 200 INGOs currently at work in China at least complicates the first supposition, while the second – centralized government control over INGOs – has yet to be substantiated. Prior research into relations between grassroots NGOs and the Chinese government gives reason to question the assumption that the government in Beijing is able to fully control INGOs. Through in-depth interviews with over 50 INGO staff working in different fields – education, health, poverty alleviation, rule of law, and the environment – this paper analyzes the various ways in which these INGOs negotiate space to work in what is generally presumed to be a hostile political environment. The paper concludes by extrapolating from the dynamics that shape INGO relations with the Chinese state to consider possible implications for understanding INGO-state relations in other authoritarian regimes.

Author

• Anthony J. Spires, Chinese University of Hong Kong