As reported by ChinaFile, two South Korean overseas NGOs have officially de-registered their representative offices in China. This follows on the heels of another five overseas NGOs that de-registered over the first eight months of 2019. What makes these figures more striking is that over the first two years of implementation of China’s new law on overseas NGOs (2017/2018), under which all of their representative offices need to be registered with the Ministry of Public Security, only two overseas NGOs had taken this step.
The last two NGOs to de-register are the South Korea Northeast Asia Foundation For Education And Culture (韩国东北亚教育文化协力财团), registered in Jilin, which had provided educational funding and resources to Yanbian University of Science and Technology, and the Central Assembly of the Aquaculture Collaboration Association (韩国水产业协同组合中央会), registered in Shanghai, which was mainly trade-focused. It is unclear why these organisations have decided to give up their offices in China.
