China tightens up on outside groups

BEIJING -- Chinese lawmakers passed a bill Thursday to put foreign nongovernmental organizations under the supervision of the security apparatus, a move that has raised alarm among civic groups, diplomats and business lobby groups.

The long-delayed bill to regulate foreign organizations had been the subject of much debate within the Communist Party and intense lobbying from abroad, but a third draft was finally passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, officials said.

Despite the lobbying effort, the bill retains the key elements causing alarm among people working to fight poverty or discrimination, offer legal aid or simply improve health education.

Foreign organizations will be placed under the supervision of the Public Security Bureau, rather than the Ministry of Civil Affairs that traditionally deals with them. Many fear they will now be treated as more of a security risk than as a partner of the government.

They will face tight supervision of their activities and their budgets, as well as spot checks by the police, and face closure if doing anything that China deems to be undermining "state security" -- meaning anything seen as threatening Communist Party rule.

It is part of a broader crackdown on civil society and free speech under President Xi Jinping, but also reflects fears that foreign groups are intent on undermining China's one-party state.

But officials insisted it would not affect the activities of the vast majority of the nearly 10,000 foreign organizations operating in China

"There's no need to worry," Zhang Yong, a member of the congress' Legislative Affairs Committee said at a news conference, arguing that foreign groups had helped China's opening to the outside world and supported social progress and changes for the past 30 years.

"We have always held a welcoming and supportive attitude towards overseas [organizations] that are engaged in friendly activities in China," he said. "But an extremely small number ... attempt to, or have already engaged in, activities that endanger China's social stability and state security. Therefore, we need to apply the rule of law to overseas [groups'] activities in China."

The law is also partly inspired by similar moves in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. Both regimes see the West's hand in the Color Revolutions that opposed autocratic governments in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans in the early 2000s, in the Arab Spring, and in pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2014.

In a paper last November, the European Council on Foreign Relations said China was waging "lawfare" on foreign organizations, with legislation underpinned by the "perceived ideological hostility of the West."

"The 'securitization' of the foreign presence in China is a defining trait of Xi Jinping's approach to national security matters," said Mathieu Duchatel, deputy director of council's Asia and China Program. "It integrates the lessons learned from Ukraine, the Middle East and Hong Kong."

But members of the National People's Congress and an official from the Public Security Bureau said at a news conference the law was meant to facilitate the work of such groups in China, not drive them out.

"We spent a year revising the draft to provide better management and service," said the congress' Guo Linmao. "Any NGO, as long as they are friendly and operate according to law, we will protect their legal interests."

China's crackdown on civil society has seen scores of lawyers, journalists, human-rights activists and academics arrested and jailed since Xi took power in 2013.

Under the new law, foreign organizations will need to find a government agency to sponsor them.

They will have to submit an annual work plan and budget to the authorities. Police can check their offices, question employees and look at materials.

Information for this article was contributed by Xu Yangjingjing and Liu Liu of The Associated Press.

A Section on 04/29/2016

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