According to a report by the 北京社会建设和民政 WeChat account, run by Beijing’s Civil Affairs Bureau, a total of 31 fake social organizations had been disbanded in Beijing from the start of the year until the end of May 2020. The report includes a list of the 31 organizations that were closed down.
“Social organizations” is a broad administrative category which includes charitable groups as well as various other kinds of nonprofits and associations. According to the report, the fake social organizations often use names that start with words like “China” and “international”, or they appropriate the names of Chinese government organs or of government initiatives like the “Belt and Road” or “Precision Poverty Alleviation” (精准扶贫). They also sometimes create websites and “constitutions”, recruit members and falsely claim to have been officially established, or attach themselves to the names of certain institutions or companies. There have also been cases of illegal social organizations that were banned by the civil affairs department, but later changed their names and got back into business.
The report encourages individual citizens, enterprises, institutions and other organizations who need to join or cooperate with a social organization to use the government’s platform for Chinese social organizations (http://www.chinanpo.gov.cn) or the official “China Social Organization News” WeChat account to check their legality, and to report on any activities by fake charities.
