NCCs have been growing fast both in quantity and quality nation-wide in China during the past decades, with great variations among each other. Until 2011, there have been 9103 NCCs registered in civil affair bureaus at different levels (Report on Non-local Chamber of Commerce in China, 2012)59. However, due to the vagueness of their legal status and insufficient direct connections with public life, public awareness of this new type of business association is still limited. NCCs’ registration has been plagued with problems throughout the journey since 1995. One reason is that the relevant regulations of NCCs are limited, and another reason is that NCCs’ development is fast with various changes in organizational forms and procedures.
Current laws and regulations at the national level towards NCCs are limited, and there are only two national official guidelines relating to the establishment of NCCs. The first one regarding NCCs’ registration - “Opinions on Relevant Problems of Non-local Chambers of Commerce Registration” (Guanyu yidi shanghui dengji youguan wenti de yijian) was promulgated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2003. It is the first and only national level official document focusing on NCCs (Interview with LWK, official in Tianjin CAB). It stipulates three principles for NCCs’ registration: first, the registration of NCCs at the provincial level must be controlled by the provincial Civil Affairs Bureaus, and provincial level NCCs are not allowed to develop district branches within the same province. Principally NCCs can only accept enterprise membership, but not individual membership. Second, it encourages provincial governments to initiate pilot projects regarding NCCs’ registration when conditions permit. Third, those who have started the registration pilot project should further facilitate NCCs’ relations with their “supervision units”.
Another official document is the Social Groups Management Registration Ordinance （ shehuituanti dengji guanli tiaoli, the Ordinance, hereafter) that applies to the
59 There was no nation-wide statistics about the total number of NCCs in China after 2012, so I could not get
registration of all NGOs in China.60 Guided by these two documents, different provinces subsequently promulgated their own specific policies towards NCCs’ registration. For example, Tianjin issued the specification in 2005 and 2008; Shandong, Zhejiang and Yunnan issued their own specifications respectively in 2009. In these specifications, such things as the title of NCCs, their organizational structure, registration procedure, the conditions to develop branches, the reporting policy for major events, and party branch building policy were specifically illustrated. However, because the legislation was far behind NCCs’ actual development, these terms could not be applied to current NCCs effectively, and were hard to implement. For example, the rule of “one province, one NCC” in these specifications regulated that one province could only establish one NCC from the same place of origin (provincial level), but many NCCs had been established far before this rule was promulgated. In Tianjin, there were three NCCs from Zhejiang province: Tianjin Zhejiang NCC, Tianjin Wenzhou NCC, and Tianjin Ningbo NCC (Interview with LWK, official in Tianjin CAB).
In late 2013, the MCA announced it would relax the “dual management system” on four categories of social organizations,61 including guild and chambers of commerce; scientific NGOs; philanthropic NGOs; and NGOs that provide community services within urban and rural areas. The Minister of Civil Affairs, Li Liguo, explained in the press conference that these four categories of social organizations can be directly registered at the Civil Affairs departments and do not need to find a “supervision unit”. This policy will be implemented progressively both at the national level and the local level with pilot projects being prioritized and then spreading out.62 It indicates that the principle of “dual management system”, which has existed for 25 years, has been loosened and this might trigger the reform in policies towards social organizations in China. In response to this central decision, provincial governments have taken actions to issue relevant regulations to implement this policy in the registration of social organizations at the local level. Shanxi Province enacted interim measures towards the direct registration of social organizations63
in July 2015, and specified the different ways of registration among these four categories. Guangxi Autonomous Region formulated interim measures as well and allowed “one
60 The State Council issued this regulation in 1998.
61 Social organizations here are equivalent to NGOs. The definition of social organizations in China, see Yang
Guobin, 2005.
62 From Chinanews site 05/12/2013,http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2013/12-05/5583640.shtml. Last entry at
08/09/15.
63山西省四类社会组织直接登记管理暂行办法, cite from http://www.ngocn.net/column/364106.html, last
industry, several associations” (yi ye duo hui). It means that more than one organization may be established within the same industry, in order to promote moderate competition and break the monopoly of resources.64 Shandong Province promulgated a regulation towards NCCs’ management - “Administration of non-local chambers of commerce in Shandong Province” in late 2014, and stipulated that the retired civil servants are not allowed to take any position part time or full time in NCCs within three years of their retirement. 65
However, when it comes to the registration of chambers of commerce and guilds, this policy came across a series of obstacles when being implemented. First, the Ordinance limits associations to a single group, dealing with one industry, in only one locality (“one locality, one industry and one association”, yidi yiye yihui). It prohibited the competition of business associations within the same industries and localities. Although the registration process has been simplified, local Civil Affairs Bureaus could also deny the new applications on the account of the already existing associations in a similar industry or locality.66 Second, after calling off the supervision unit, some local Civil Affairs departments classified social organizations internally and attributed their registration duties to different divisions respectively within the bureau, which increased the workload of the local CAB and reduced efficiency.67 Third, the contradictions between different policies brought about difficulties in the implementation of local policy. The State Council promulgated the Ordinance in 1998, which has been the only national law for the registration of NGOs in China. Since it is quite outdated, the State Council has announced to start the revision since 2009. However, the revision had not been completed when the MCA made the decision on loosening the “Dual Management System” on four categories of social organizations in late 2013. The MCA’s administrative level is lower than the State Council, so if its policy contradicts with the existing Ordinance, it would be really hard to implement in practice as a result of lacking relevant supporting policies and specifications (Interview with ZJ, Official in Tianjin ECO).
64广西省四类社会组织直接登记管理暂行办法, cite from http://www.ngocn.net/column/364106.html, last
entry 08/09/2015.
65 Cite from Shandong Government net. http://www.shandong.gov.cn/art/2015/3/5/art_286_663.html, last
entry 08/09/2015.
66 Refer to the twelfth session CPPCC proposal No. 0873
http://www.cppcc.gov.cn/zxww/2015/03/06/ARTI1425612693671137.shtml.
67 Refer to interview to Yangtuan, 社会组织登记“开闸” 15/04/2015,
The registration of NCCs still follows the “Dual Management System”, although there have been reforms underway. To establish a NCC, non-local entrepreneurs need to register in the Civil Affairs Bureaus in the registration locality, and at the same time they have to find a “mother-in-law” (supervision unit) to supervise its daily business and administration. At the initial stage, NCCs have quite a lot of options in choosing their supervision unit, from the ICF to the home governments’ liaison office. However, this was dealt a setback in February 2002 when the MCA promulgated the “Notice Re-Confirming the Management Units for Social Groups” (Guanyu chongxin queren shehui tuanti yewu guanli danwei de tongzhi). This regulation gave the authority to supervise social groups to 22 departments, but not to the ICF (Fewsmith, 2008). Currently, NCCs’ supervision units also show regional variations. Some previously established NCCs are subordinated to local ICFs, some other NCCs are supervised by local commerce bureaus, and the most newly established ones are managed by the economic cooperation departments (Interview with XXX, official in Hangzhou ECO). For example, Guangdong Economic and Information Commission supervised NCCs in Guangdong; Tianjin Economic Cooperation Office subordinated NCCs in Tianjin; and NCCs in Beijing are under the management of different provincial liaison offices in Beijing (zhujingban).
The variation of NCCs’ registration and their relationship with supervision units directly reflects the feature of NCCs’ state networks, though the intensity of these state networks needs to be illustrated in the following case studies. NCCs’ registration was plagued with lots of problems, and it was the first lobbying case with local states for most of NCCs. Due to the variation in support and controls from supervision units, NCCs did show a variation in lobbying for registration. For example, as the Guangdong government loosened the registration procedure and it was comparatively easy and straightforward to register an NCC, NCCs in Guangdong were selective when approaching local states. They intentionally kept distance from the general Guangdong local bureaucracies, but maintained a close relationship with the Guangdong Economic and Information Commission and the Guangdong Liaison Office in relevant districts, because NCCs could seek financial support from these two departments, which had the budget to reward outstanding NCCs for their work in attracting investment (Interview with YDF, official in Guangdong Economic and Information Commission). NCCs in Tianjin were more inclusive in approaching local bureaucracies when seeking registration. Apart from the interaction with the Tianjin ECO, they also approached the Tianjin ICF and local business
committee at different levels in order to facilitate all the stages of the registration (Interview with LX, official in Tianjin ECO).