The annual report on overseas NGOs in China, released by the Administration Office of Overseas NGOs of the Ministry of Public Security (AONGOMPS), revealed that by Dec 31 last year, 631 representative offices of overseas NGOs had registered in accordance with the law, and 4,018 temporary activities had been recorded.
Of the 631 registered representative offices, the majority were by organizations based in the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom, accounting for 62.44 percent of the total.
The most common locations for offices were Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Yunnan and Sichuan, accounting for 67.67 percent of the total registrations.
According to China’s 2017 law on the Administration of Activities of Overseas NGOs, legally established overseas NGOs in China need to first confirm their corresponding departments according to the NGOs’ main areas of operation, and the respective department will then be considered the NGO’s “organization in charge of operations”. Following the approval of these departments, NGOs submit the required documents to the provincial level AONGOMPS.
The “organizations in charge of operations” of the registered offices, according to the annual report, tend to be commerce departments, large organizations, education departments, civil affairs ministries and health departments, accounting for 73.22 percent of the total.
The top five areas of operation of the NGOs are the economy, education, disaster relief, health and environmental protection. Among them, 320 representative offices of overseas NGOs are registered in the economic field – about half of the total.
About 39.14 percent, or 247 representative offices, operate nationwide. Meanwhile, 185 (29.32 percent) operate in multiple provincial administrative regions, and 199 (31.54 percent) operate in a single provincial administrative region, according to the report.
