countries, especially the surrounding countries (…)”. NGOs The concept of non-governmental organization (NGO) dates back from the founding of the United Nations in 1945, which defined them as organizations that were and neutral in their execution of international duties . Since then, the concept has broadened and is used to refer to organizations with a social purpose which exist independent of the government system (ibid., p. 6). Broadly speaking, NGOs have four basic functions: resource mobilization, public services, social governance and policy advocacy (Ibid., p. 17). The rise of Chinese NGOs When approaching Chinese social organizations some things have to be considered, since the term originated from the West and it is not directly applicable to the Chinese context. Firstly, NGO is a fuzzy concept without a strict academic definition or category; secondly, it is transitional concept, meaning that it has changed and adapted to different realities, and given China's current engagement in social transition, these organizations are experiencing drastic changes spanning from the confrontation between the old and the new (Ibid., p. 8). As Professor Wang Min and Jia Xijin of Qinghua University said, there barely is Chinese NGO meet the western NGO criteria. But in In order to promote the development of Chinese NGOs, Chinese scholars tend to give a flexible definition to NGO. . When it comes to the definition of Chinese NGO, Wang and Jia adopt the definition from Professor Kang Xiaoguang, An organization could be called an “ NGO’ if it registers legally, its activity is non-profit and altruistic, meet the ‘Chinese requirements of voluntary and Charitable; and it possesses varying degrees of independent and self-governed.” Hence we could assume that it is a definition of NGO with Chinese characteristics——without strict limitation on the independence and autonomy. When NGO was firstly introduced into China, it is a totally new concept. Chinese use it in the form of abbrrviation——NGO instead of zheng fu zu That leads to an interesting fact that normal Chinese don’t know that NGO has to be non-governmental, they match it with the concept of Charity organization. This could partly explain that why Chinese could accept that NGOs have connections and close relationship with government or even
countries, especially the surrounding countries (…)”. NGOs The concept of non-governmental organization (NGO) dates back from the founding of the United Nations in 1945, which defined them as organizations that were and neutral in their execution of international duties . Since then, the concept has broadened and is used to refer to organizations with a social purpose which exist independent of the government system (ibid., p. 6). Broadly speaking, NGOs have four basic functions: resource mobilization, public services, social governance and policy advocacy (Ibid., p. 17). The rise of Chinese NGOs When approaching Chinese social organizations some things have to be considered, since the term originated from the West and it is not directly applicable to the Chinese context. Firstly, NGO is a fuzzy concept without a strict academic definition or category; secondly, it is transitional concept, meaning that it has changed and adapted to different realities, and given China's current engagement in social transition, these organizations are experiencing drastic changes spanning from the confrontation between the old and the new (Ibid., p. 8). As Professor Wang Min and Jia Xijin of Qinghua University said, there barely is Chinese NGO meet the western NGO criteria. But in In order to promote the development of Chinese NGOs, Chinese scholars tend to give a flexible definition to NGO. . When it comes to the definition of Chinese NGO, Wang and Jia adopt the definition from Professor Kang Xiaoguang, “ An organization could be called an ‘Chinese NGO’ if it registers legally, its activity is non-profit and altruistic, meet the requirements of voluntary and Charitable; and it possesses varying degrees of independent and self-governed.” Hence we could assume that it is a definition of NGO with Chinese characteristics——without strict limitation on the independence and autonomy. When NGO was firstly introduced into China, it is a totally new concept. Chinese use it in the form of abbrrviation——NGO instead of zheng fu zu That leads to an interesting fact that normal Chinese don’t know that NGO has to be non-governmental, they match it with the concept of Charity organization. This could partly explain that why Chinese could accept that NGOs have connections and close relationship with government or even
The_role_of_NGOs_in_China_s_Public_Diplomacy_MIAO_Yuan.docx