Fears new Guangzhou registration law will stifle NGOs
Activists and academics say hastily put-together consultation on rules for registering civic groups is a retrograde step for social development
Guangzhou's non-government sector fears an imminent clampdown after city authorities said they were considering new measures against "illegal" social organisations.
The city government launched an unusually brief 10-day public consultation on a controversial regulation that would close down and confiscate the property of "influential NGOs without legal status" that were raising funds, organising events in the name of the social organisations or that had continued operating after their registration had been revoked.
"Ah Qiang", the pseudonym of a member of the Guangzhou-based concern group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays China expressed the fears of his group.
"According to this rule, all homosexual rights groups … can be shut down at any time because none of them have been granted registration with the city's Civil Affairs Bureau," he said. "These organisations wish to be registered legally but it seems the authorities are trying their best to deter them."
The proposed regulation was posted on the bureau's website on October 16 but it was not picked up by local media until Wednesday. The public have until Sunday to air their views on the matter.
Many local NGOs say they are still struggling to gain legal status even though a policy relaxing NGO registration was launched in 2012.