CIAO DATE: 09/2010
July 2010
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Fifteen years ago, international aid agencies interested in doing development projects in China would begin their efforts with a fairly predictable series of meetings. A delegation from the organization would arrive in Beijing to meet with embassy officials, Chinese ministry officials, and the same small band of Chinese and foreign development experts who pioneered work in the late 1980s and 1990s in areas such as commercial law reform and rural development. Going from drab reception room to drab reception room and drinking endless cups of tea, the delegation was usually aiming to secure an implementing partner from among a shortlist of approved government agencies or think tanks. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government-sponsored think tank, was one such partner in these early cooperation projects. If an aid agency were particularly lucky, it might strike a deal with an office of the State Council, National People's Congress, or Ministry of Civil Affairs that had permission to collaborate with foreigners on legal reform and development efforts.
Resource link: Chinese Nongovernmental Organizations: Politics by Other Means? [PDF] - 162K