Editor’s Note
The recently announced legislative work plan of the Ministry of Civil Affairs for 2019 specifies that the “Regulations for the Registration Management of Social Organizations” are to be submitted to the State Council for consideration, meaning that their implementation cannot be far off.
A preliminary draft of the same regulations was published a year ago, in August 2018, to solicit feedback from the public and from experts. You can find CDB reports on this here and here. From our perspective, the “Regulations for the Registration Management of Social Organizations” are important because officially registering with the Ministry of Civil Affairs as a “social organization” is still difficult for many Chinese NGOs and charities. The first draft seemed to lend legal basis to the policy, first put forward in 2012, of allowing many kinds of social organization to register directly with the ministry without first finding a “supervisory unit”. This policy has been implemented unevenly, but if it is mentioned in the final version of the new regulations, this should lend it much more legal strength. On the other hand, others were concerned that the first draft seemed to set a very high financial threshold for the registration of charitable foundations.
Below is CDB’s translation of a report by the “Charity Times” (公益时报) from the 16th of July.
On July 16, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced the “Ministry of Civil Affairs’ 2019 Legislative Work Plan”. There are two laws, six administrative regulations, and three departmental regulations that have been included in the plan.
The “Regulations for the Registration Management of Social Organisations” is listed as the first of the six administrative regulations. The responsible units are the Policy and Regulation Department and the Social Organizations Administration. The progress of the regulation’s formulation is described as “to be submitted to the State Council for consideration”.
This is not the first time that the “Regulations on the Registration of Social Organizations” has been included in the legislative work plan of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The “Ministry of Civil Affairs 2018 Legislative Work Plan” proposed to strive to complete the formulation of the “Regulations on the Registration of Social Organizations” within the year.
In the same year (2018), the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the “Regulations for the Registration Management of Social Organisations (Draft to Solicit Feedback)”, asking for opinions from all social circles.
The “draft to solicit feedback” aroused great attention within the charity sector. Theoretical circles and practitioners put forward their suggestions in various ways, including seminars. The opinions focused on the definitions of social organizations, non-profits, the registration threshold, the registration authority, wages and benefits, law enforcement, and party building. After the collection of the feedback, no further progress was announced to the outside. The plan to complete the formulation of the “Regulations on the Registration of Social Organizations” within 2018 was not completed.
In May 2019, the “State Council’s 2019 Legislative Work Plan” was issued, and the “Regulations on the Registration of Social Organizations” was included among the administrative laws and regulations to be drafted and revised.
In the just-issued “Ministry of Civil Affairs 2019 Legislative Work Plan”, the progress of the “Regulations on the Registration of Social Organizations” was described as “to be submitted to the State Council for consideration”.
“Legislative Law of the People’s Republic of China” provides the following:
In the process of drafting administrative regulations, the opinions of relevant organs, organizations, representatives of the people’s congresses and the public should be widely heard. Listening to opinions can take various forms such as symposiums, argumentation meetings, and hearings.
From a certain perspective, in 2018 the Ministry of Civil Affairs has already collected opinions in accordance with this regulation.
The Legislative Law also provides:
After the drafting of administrative regulations is completed, the drafting unit shall submit the draft and its explanations, the opinions of the various parties towards the main problems in the draft and other related material to the legal institution of the State Council for review.
The legal institution of the State Council shall submit a review report and a revised draft to the State Council, and the review report shall explain the main issues of the draft.
The procedures for determining administrative regulations shall be handled in accordance with the relevant provisions of the relevant laws of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.
The 2019 Legislative Work Plan of the Ministry of Civil Affairs proposes that the “Regulations for the Registration Management of Social Organisations” should be submitted to the State Council for review in 2019, stating that the formulation of the “Regulations on the Registration of Social Organizations” has entered the final stage. Once it has been reviewed and approved by the Prime Minister it can be formally implemented.
In the process, it remains to be seen whether the relevant provisions in the previous draft will be further modified.
In addition, other points in the “Ministry of Civil Affairs 2019 Legislative Work Plan” related to the charity sector include the revision of the “Administrative Measures for Institutions of Elderly Care” and the formulation of the “Methods on Volunteer Service Records and the Issuance of Certification”.
