I often get questions about the legal context for philanthropy in countries around the world. In my last post, I shared several global resources that can help you find information about this topic. Let’s start looking at resources that focus on specific countries. First up: China.
China introduced two new laws related to not-for-profit organizations and philanthropy in 2016: The Charity Law and the Overseas NGO Law.
The Global Legal Monitor, a project of the Law Library of Congress here in the United States, summarized China’s Charity Law. This law went into effect on September 1, 2016.
The Diplomat described the motivations behind passing this law in an article called, “Can China’s New Charity Law Fix a Dismal Donation Rate?” The subheading for this article continued, “Chinese charitable giving ranks at the bottom of the world. A new law aims to fix that.”
Under the headline, “Charity Law for Dummies,” The China Development Brief provided a series of infographics prepared by the China Philanthropy Institute that illustrate the main points of the Charity Law.
China Briefing outlined both of the charity laws, with additional information the Overseas NGO Law’s impact on foreign NGOs operating in China. While passed in 2016, this law went did not go into effect until January 2017.
Photo: The Great Hall Of The People at night on 02/03/2007 by Thomas.fanghaenel
