Commentary on the New Charity Undertakings Law: Socialist Modernization through Collective Organizations

Abstract

China’s new Charity Law represents the culmination of over a decade of planning for the appropriate development of the productive forces of the charity sector in aid of socialist modernization. Together with the related Foreign NGO Management Law, it represents an important advance in the organization of the civil society sector within emerging structures of Socialist Rule of Law principles. While both Charity and Foreign NGO Management Laws could profitably be considered as parts of a whole, each merits discussion for its own unique contribution ot national development. One can understand, both the need to manage Chinese civil society within the context of charity ideals, and the need to constrain foreign non-governmental organizations to ensure national control over its own development. Moreover, the decision to invite global comment also evidenced Chinese understanding of the global ramifications of its approach to the management of its civil society, and its importance in the global discourse about consensus standards for that management among states. This becomes more important as Chinese civil society try to emerge onto the world stage.This essay considers the role of the Charity Law in advancing Socialist Modernization through the realization of the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) Basic Line. The essay is organized as follows: Section II considers the specific provisions of the Charity Law, with some reference to changes between the first draft and the final version of the Charity Law. Section III then considers some of the more theoretical considerations that suggest a framework for understanding the great contribution of the Charity Law as well as the challenges that remain for the development of the productive forces of the civil society sector at this historical stage of China’s development.