The Future of Overseas NGOs in China

The Future of Overseas NGOs in China
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM (Eastern Daylight Time)

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About the event

In 2016 China passed a law tightly restricting the activities of non-profit organizations from “overseas” jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. NGOs, foundations, think tanks, and many universities, museums, and even industry associations suddenly faced a new regime of reporting obligations and surveillance. It is now almost five years since the law took effect. Law Professor Mark Sidel of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Jessica Batke, editor at the China NGO Project, will talk with USALI Executive Director Katherine Wilhelm about what five years of a heavily securitized regulatory regime has meant for overseas nonprofits in China, how the regime is adapting and expanding, and prospects for the future.

About the speakers

Mark Sidel is the Doyle-Bascom professor of law and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a consultant (Asia) to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL). He served with the Ford Foundation in Beijing, Hanoi, Bangkok, and New Delhi and has advised and written about China’s Overseas NGO Law since it was introduced in the legislature in 2015. He is also doing comparative research about controls on foreign non-profit funding and activities in India, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and elsewhere in the region. 

Jessica Batke is a ChinaFile senior editor and runs the China NGO Project, a community-driven online platform focused on NGOs working in China. She researches China’s domestic political and social affairs, and served as the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research Analyst for nearly eight years prior to joining ChinaFile. In 2016, she was a visiting academic fellow at MERICS in Berlin. She holds a B.A. in Linguistics from Pitzer College and an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University.