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Abstract
NGOs have been seen as an integral part of civil society and a necessary feature of democratic transition. It has been argued that depoliticised NGOs in China ‘embedded’ in existing political structures would eventually bring about democratic changes through incremental actions, as they did in post-Soviet Russia. Both countries, however, recently witnessed the shrinking of political and legal space for public participation, especially for foreign-funded civil society organisations. This article analyses the impact of the NGO laws on civil society in Russia and China to update the embedded activism hypothesis. It draws on empirical data to describe the strategies that the NGOs use to adapt and how the future of the sector is perceived by young people in both countries.
Notes
1 For the full list of countries see Sherwood (Citation2015).
2 I adopt the common UN definition of youth as persons between the ages of 15 and 24; see more at ‘Definitions of Youth’, United Nations Youth, available at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-definition.pdf, accessed 23 March 2018.
3 ‘NGO Law Monitor: China’, The International Centre For Not-For-Profit-Law, 2016, available at: http://www.icnl.org/research/monitor/china.html, accessed 23 March 2018.
4 Interview with a head of a large Russian NGO, Salzburg, March 2014.
5 ‘Notice Regarding Yunnan Province’s Provisional Regulations Standardizing the Activities of Overseas Non-Governmental Organizations’, 2009, available at: http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Yunnan-Provinces-Provisional-Regulations-Standardizing-the-Activities-of-Overseas-Non-Governmental-Organizations1.pdf, accessed 12 December 2018.
6 Federal’nyi zakon ot 20 yulya 2012 g. № 129-F3, ‘O vnesenii izmenenii v otdel’nye zakonodatel’nye akty Rossiiskoi Federatsii v chasti regulirovanya deyatel’nosti nekommercheskih organizatsii, vypolnyayushchikh funktsii inostrannogo agenta’, available at: http://www.rg.ru/2012/07/23/nko-dok.html, accessed 12 December 2018.
7 Federal’nyi zakon ot 23 Mai 2015 № 129-F3, ‘O vnesenii izmenenii v otdel’nye zakonodatel’nye akty Rossiiskoi Federatsii’, available at: http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001201505230001?index=0&rangeSize=1, accessed 12 December 2018.
8 Constitutional Law No. 10-P, 8 April 2014, specifies that environmental NGOs are not deemed political; however, some ENGOs have been added to the ‘foreign agent’ list regardless. See: Ekologicheskie NKO priznaut inostrannimi agentami vopreki resheniyu KS (2015), available at: http://www.rbc.ru/politics/18/03/2015/550812909a79475f79d367cc, accessed 1 June 2019.
9 ‘NGO Law Monitor: China’, The International Centre For Not-For-Profit-Law, 2016, available at: http://www.icnl.org/research/monitor/china.html, accessed 23 March 2018.
10 ‘Notice Regarding Yunnan Province’s Provisional Regulations Standardizing the Activities of Overseas Non-Governmental Organizations’, 2009, available at: http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Yunnan-Provinces-Provisional-Regulations-Standardizing-the-Activities-of-Overseas-Non-Governmental-Organizations1.pdf, accessed 12 December 2018.
11 Interview with a former ENGO employee and a current academic, Kunming, February 2014.
12 See ‘Order of the President of the People’s Republic of China No. 44 (2016)’, available at: http://www.mps.gov.cn/n2254314/n2254409/n4904353/c5548987/content.html, accessed 1 June 2019.
13 ‘Russia’s Putin Signs Law Against “Undesirable” NGOs’, BBC News, 24 May 2015, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32860526, accessed 23 March 2018.
14 See, for example Denyer (Citation2015); ‘Uncivil Society’, The Economist, available at: http://www.economist.com/news/china/21661819-new-draft-law-spooks-foreign-not-profit-groups-working-china-uncivil-society, accessed 1 June 2018.
15 ‘NGO Law Monitor: China’, The International Centre For Not-For-Profit-Law, 2016, available at: http://www.icnl.org/research/monitor/china.html, accessed 23 March 2018.
16 ‘Ukaz o provedenii Goda ekologii v 2017 godu’, available at: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/51142, accessed 20 December 2018.
17 For the picture and the news story, see ‘Na stene office “Memoriala” poyavilas’ nadpis’ “Inostrannii Agent”’, 21 November 2012, available at: http://slon.ru/fast/russia/na-stene-ofisa-memoriala-poyavilas-nadpis-inostrannyyagent-855137.xhtml, accessed 1 June 2019.
18 ‘“Nochnye volki” poluchili grant na elki’, Kommersant’’, 10 December 2015, available at: http://kommersant.ru/doc/2873515, accessed 20 December 2018.
19 ‘How Much is a Hardline Party Directive Shaping China’s Current Political Climate?’, China File, 2013, available at: http://www.chinafile.com/document-9-chinafile-translation, accessed 1 June 2019.
20 Interview with an ENGO founder, Beijing, November 2014.
21 The 2006 Russian Law on Non-Governmental Organisations obliges NGOs to pay tax on grants received. As most donors cannot pay money from foreign governments, it made it harder to fundraise.
22 Interview with a head of a middle-sized Moscow ENGO, Moscow, September 2014.
23 Interview with a head of a climate change NGO, Beijing, November 2014.
24 Interview with the ex-president of a middle-sized development NGO, Kunming, April 2015.
25 Interview with a former employee of a middle-sized ENGO, Kunming, March 2014.
26 Interview with a staff member of a middle-sized Moscow NGO, Moscow, September 2014.
27 Interview with a staff member of an environmental health group, Vladivostok, October 2014.
28 Interview with a head of an indigenous people’s environment and development NGO, Kunming, November 2014.
29 Interview with former head of a reforestation NGO, Kunming, March 2015.
30 Interview with a director of a waste-management company in Moscow, Moscow, September 2014.
31 Interview with an environmentalist, Vladivostok, September 2014.
32 Interview with a Swiss head of an environment and development NGO, Kunming, June 2015.
33 Interview with a founder of a medium-sized conservation NGO, Beijing, November 2014.
34 Interview with a founder of a Moscow-based middle-sized conservation NGO, Moscow, May 2015.
35 Interview with a head of a Moscow-based NGO, Salzburg, March 2014.
36 Interview with a head of a former Yunnan ENGO, Kunming, 2015.
37 Interview with Jiao, the former head of a forest restoration ENGO, Kunming, May 2015.
38 Interview with Vitalii, the former head of a small wildlife protection ENGO in the Russian Far East, Vladivostok, September 2014.
39 Interview with Alex, a former volunteer with an environment and health NGO funded by USAID, Vladivostok, September 2014.
40 Interview with Maria, environmental scientist, Moscow, August 2015.
41 Interview with Yulia, Vladivostok, September 2014.
42 Interview with Maria, Moscow, August 2015; interview with Yulia, Vladivostok, September 2014.
43 Interview with Lili, a university student, Kunming, May 2015.
44 Interview with Lin, an English literature student, Beijing, June 2015.
45 Interview with an ENGO founder, Beijing, May 2015.
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Irina Fedorenko
Irina Fedorenko, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, 43 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HG, UK. Email: [email protected]