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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 000679 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM, OES/PCI, DRL, AND EAP/PD 
STATE ALSO PASS USTR FOR CHINA OFFICE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI PGOV ECON SCUL EAID CH
SUBJECT: South China NGO Getting More Professional But Still Face 
Internal Challenges 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000679  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
(U) This document is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly.  Not for release outside U.S. government channels.  Not 
for internet publication. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  As the operational space for non-government 
organizations (NGOs) continue to slowly widen in China (septel), the 
sector's social role is becoming more defined and some organizations 
are beginning to mature in how they organize and operate, according 
to NGO experts in south China.  As part of this trend, the Internet 
and the media are playing an increasingly important role in the 
public campaign efforts of some south China NGOs.  However, not all 
NGOs have been able to take full advantage of this extra space. 
Some have stalled in their development as a result of internal 
capacity challenges.  Lack of training and oversight are often cited 
by NGO organizers as reasons why some organizations struggle to 
mature.  End Summary. 
 
The Role of NGOs in China 
-------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) NGOs in China are more clearly defining their social 
functions, said Professor Zhu Jiangang, Director of Sun Yat-sen 
University's Institute of Civil Society (ISC) in Guangzhou.  Zhu 
told the Consul General and ConGenOff that the sector's role in 
Chinese society has become more directed and falls into three major 
categories.  First, the sector is a provider of social services, 
especially in areas where the Chinese government cannot or where the 
market is unwilling to do so.  Second, by helping the development of 
rule of law, NGOs have a role in defending human and civil rights. 
Third, NGOs act as social innovators because social problems cannot 
be solved by the government, the market, or NGOs alone.  NGOs can 
experiment on how to improve social welfare, and if it is 
successful, the government can take up the model and craft new 
policies accordingly.  This is a learning process for all involved, 
said Zhu. 
 
NGO Professionalization 
----------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) In recent years, there has been a slow, but steady, trend 
of Chinese NGOs becoming more mature in their organization and 
operation, according to Zhu.  Some NGOs in south China have become 
more professionalized and have expanded beyond their initial 
location to offer services to a larger community.  Several have also 
transitioned from loosely organized volunteer organizations to ones 
with more defined administrative structures.  Zhu added that the 
founders of NGOs are no longer limited to social workers, but also 
include migrant workers, students, university graduates, 
businessmen, former government officials, and even members of 
organized crime rings.  Many labor NGOs in south China, for example, 
were founded by migrant workers. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Friends Social Welfare Association, a student organized 
NGO serving the gay and lesbian community, began on the campus of 
South China University of Technology in Guangzhou's University Town. 
 It now has offices on two other campuses and the association's 
activities have expanded to include the entire University Town, 
which houses ten universities, said its founder Chen Du.  Although 
the staff are all volunteers, each has a set of defined 
responsibilities and administrative duties, said Chen.  Yangai 
Special Children Parent Club, which provides assistance to families 
of children with special needs in Guangzhou, is another organization 
that has compartmentalize its internal functions.  Yangai has 
separate departments for education, parent services, and project 
development.  The organization also offers internships to university 
students majoring in social work or sociology, said an 
administrator.  ICS, the organization that Zhu heads up, has a board 
of directors consisting of scholars, entrepreneurs, and other NGO 
leaders.  It supports the developmental work of NGOs in south China, 
as well as those in Yunnan and Anhui provinces.  ICS also has plans 
to create formal training programs for NGO professionals and 
volunteers in the near future. 
 
Making Good Use of the Internet 
------------------------------- 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000679  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶5. (SBU) The Internet is proving to be a valuable public relations 
tool for NGOs in south China.  At ICS, Zhu's team is working with 
specialists from Guangdong University of Technology and 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a web platform, 
known as Philanthropy 2.0, to facilitate communication among China's 
NGOs.  Meanwhile, organizations like FSWA uses the Internet as its 
core means of communication with its constituents, said FSWA founder 
Chen.  He explained that because FSWA targets young people, 
particularly students, who spend a lot of time surfing the Internet, 
having an online platform is essential for promoting the association 
and disseminating information to its members.  FSWA administers two 
blogs and has also created a user group in QQ, an online instant 
messenger service.  Yangai also taps the Internet to do outreach and 
fund-raising with a relatively developed website and an online 
store.  Yangai Project Development Director Liu Yahui said that she 
hoped the organization could further raise its Internet presence in 
the future. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Separately, some organizations have linked up with other 
civil society actors, like bloggers, to publicize their work.  At a 
recent meeting of Chinese bloggers in Guangdong, many grassroots 
NGOs gave presentations about their organizations.  These included 
NGOs working on education and children's issues, as well as charity 
funds and advocacy groups.  "The conference was a platform for us to 
share and exchange our ideas with like-minded people who have access 
to many information channels on the Internet," said one NGO 
presenter. 
 
Media and Government Relations 
------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU) A good relationship with the media is essential for an NGO 
to be successful in China because it lessens the degree of official 
scrutiny and provides positive exposure of an NGO's work, said Wei 
Wei, founder of Little Bird Mutual Help Hotline.  Media reports have 
helped Little Bird spread the word about its services and have made 
the organization more functional and effective, according to Wei. 
In Guangdong, Shenzhen Television and Southern Metropolis Daily 
(Nanfang Dushi Bao) recently highlighted Little Bird's Shenzhen 
office, after which the office saw an increase in the number of 
migrant workers seeking legal advice from the organization.  In 
2004, Little Bird had similar success in Beijing, when a report 
about the hotline aired on the Beijing Evening News.  The publicity 
ultimately resulted in the local government granting the NGO the 
right to establish the Little Bird People's Mediation Committee 
under the Donghuamen Justice Office.  With this new status, Little 
Bird possessed an organizational identity to approach companies and 
represent migrant workers and their rights.  Drawing on Little 
Bird's experience with the media, Wei plans to create a training 
course for grassroots NGOs on how to develop a media strategy and 
take advantage of the resulting publicity. 
 
¶8. (SBU) For organizations like FSWA, however, avoiding the media 
but concentrating on relations with the authorities may be a better 
strategy.  Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender 
communities on many of Guangzhou's university campuses, FSWA found 
that keeping a low profile and avoiding media exposure meant less 
scrutiny and opposition from university authorities, said founder 
Chen Du.  Instead, he has cultivated relations with the 
universities' Communist Youth League committees, working with them 
to host events and programs focused on sex education.  In contrast, 
Chen said that a similar organization, the more high-profile Rainbow 
Association at Sun Yat-sen University, was banned by university 
authorities not long after its founding. 
 
Internal Roadblocks 
------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Although some Chinese NGOs have been able to capitalize on 
the wider operational space afforded them by the authorities, others 
find themselves at a development stage where they simply are unable 
to take full advantage due to internal shortcomings, said Li Weining 
(aka Miles W.N. Lee), a senior research fellow at China Development 
Institute (CDI) in Shenzhen.  Although organizers of many NGOs have 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000679  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
great ideas and passion for their work, they are often deficient in 
the administrative experience and financial expertise required to 
efficiently organize and grow an organization, according to Li. 
Zhou Xinjing, founder of Allied Social Work Services Center of 
Shenzhen, lamented that it is difficult for her organization to 
attract support because she and her staff lack management and 
promotional skills, as well as computer know-how to advertise her 
organization's work.  She said that other barriers afflicting 
organizations like hers include the lack of training in 
organizational management, team and project development, and 
evaluation skills. 
 
¶10. (SBU) There are no established training curriculums for NGO 
administration in China, Li pointed out, adding that whatever 
training does exist is informal and often in the form of seminars, 
conferences, and forums.  Zhu of ICS, which currently offers 
seminars on NGO development, also identified training as a critical 
area for development.  Within the next three years, with assistance 
from the British Council in Guangzhou, ICS plans to provide formal 
training on volunteerism, NGO professionalism, and social 
entrepreneurship. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Another internal encumbrance facing many NGOs in China is 
often the founders themselves, argued one south China expert.  Some 
heads of NGOs run an organization as if it is his/her "kingdom," and 
the NGO's success is intimately linked with its leader's success, he 
explained.  Related to this issue is the matter of oversight.  Most 
NGOs in China, particularly the grassroots ones, lack internal 
oversight mechanisms, which often lead to accountability problems. 
 
Comment - Positive Trend 
------------------------ 
 
¶12. (SBU) The disparities in professional capacity are large between 
more mature organizations and less developed ones in south China's 
emergent NGO sector.  Many have a long way to go and will continue 
to struggle with internal problems.  However, the trend is positive, 
and local experts are optimistic about the potential for NGOs to 
play a growing role in society in south China. 
 
GOLDBECK