On the 27th September, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs announced that the city’s first local charity regulations – ‘The Beijing Charitable Enterprise Promotion Measures’ – would come into effect by the end of the year. The new regulations will clearly define the information that charitable organizations are required to publically disclose. The head of the Charities Department of the Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs, Cheng Liyan, said that “At present, nationwide charities legislation has not yet been implemented, so our measures will not be too bold, but nor will they be enough. They will be issued according to the rules set by the government”.
Cheng predicted that the new regulations would begin this year. According to the information presented by the Bureau, the biggest feature of the new rules will be that they clearly stipulate that charitable enterprises classed as ‘associations’ will no longer possess the qualifications that enable them to solicit public donations. This includes all associations, such as business associations, that exist in the city and it’s surrounding counties. After the new rules are introduced it will only be foundations that are able to collect public donations and Cheng Liyan pointed out that any associations that solicit donations will no longer be complying with regulations. He said that the next step would be to use the rules to promote the transformation of association-type charitable organisations, or induce them to do donation-work in affiliation with a foundation. “In the future” Cheng said, “the government will focus on assisting the foundations in collecting donations”.
