More news comes out about the repression of labor NGOs in Shenzhen which started this February and has already affected more than 10 groups.
The usual approach is for the landlord to use various excuses the evict the NGO from their office space. Prior to being evicted, these NGOs were visited and inspected by various local government bureaus. Some of the NGOs affected asked why they would be closed down just because they failed to meet certain requirements, and called on local authorities to take a more constructive approach by helping the NGOs to address their deficiencies. One labor NGO that has been less affected, the Beijing-based Little Bird NGO spoke about the work it has invested in government relations. Other labor NGOs spoke about the difficulty of getting registered despite the reforms Shenzhen has enacted to make NGO registration easier, indicating that the reforms may be benefiting certain categories of NGOs in less sensitive sectors.
But interviews with other labor NGOs in Guangdong that succeeded in registering indicate that the situation is more complicated and may depend not just on the sector you work in, but also on other factors such as the professional capacity of the NGO and past efforts made in maintaining good relations with the government.
