Really sucks! China just bans most influential NGO & development newsletter from Beijing.
On July 4, Beijing municipal police raided the Beijing office of China Development Brief, an independent publication that has been operating in China since 1996 that reports on social development and civil society in China. Both the English and Chinese versions of the publication have been banned charged with illegal publishing of the Chinese version. Nick Young, the founding editor who contributes regularly to the English edition, has been deemed guilty of conducting “unauthorized surveys” under the 1989 Statistics Law and now faces possible deportation. Over the past 27 years since international NGOs have been operating in China, this is a rare instance of one being shut down.
This is really a discouraging news, and I am so disappointed. Really, no matter where I live China Development Brief always have been very helpful. It is very informative, and always with in-depth studies on issues and problems in the field of development, in particularly development of China. But now, foreign readers as well as general population will lose resource and information!
China Development Brief
Reporting the latest news on China's social development
Reporting the latest news on China's social development
Below is a statement that Nick Young have sent to the police officer who interviewed him last week.
Dear Policeman Kang,
In order to assist your investigations, I am pleased to supply you with the following background information on what I have been doing in China over the last twelve years. I would ask you to kindly pass this information to your leaders.
Early Years
I established China Development Brief in 1995, when I was living in Yunnan Province, producing the first issue in January 1996. At first it was a print newsletter, published and distributed by a social development research institute at the City University of Hong Kong. At the end of 1997, that institute and I terminated our relationship and I continued to publish and distribute the newsletter through a sole-proprietor business I established for that purpose in Hong Kong.
In the early years, China Development Brief was a specialist, English language newsletter aimed at international organisations providing development assistance to China. At that time, China was receiving more than USD 4 billion each year in government-to-government, multilateral and private aid from overseas. China Development Brief was the only regular and independent publication reporting on how that money was spent. The purpose of the newsletter, as expressed by its mission statement at that time, was "to increase the effectiveness of international aid to China."
For the first 18 months I produced the newsletter single handed. After that, I was joined by a Canadian Chinese volunteer who worked with me full-time for a little more than one year, during which time we also recruited a young Yunnan University graduate to work as an editorial assistant.
Early subscribers to our publication:
Multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and UN system agencies (roughly 10% of the total)
The international aid agencies of donor governments, such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan , Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and the UK. (roughly 10% of the total)
Private international aid donors and agencies, including grant-making foundations and operational NGOs (roughly 70% of the total) Although the total aid to China provided by these agencies was much less than that of governmental and multilateral agencies, they were relatively numerous and, given their smaller budgets, had fewer resources for networking and background research to inform their programming; therefore, it was natural that they should comprise our most significant readership, and that the publication should concentrate on meeting their information needs
Foreign correspondents and media reporting on China (roughly 5% of the total)
Academic institutions and individual scholars based overseas (roughly 5% of the total)
Middle Years
In the summer of 1999, I relocated from Kunming, Yunnan, to Beijing , and started to develop a small team ofâ€"mainly Chineseâ€"colleagues to expand China Development Brief's publishing activities. In addition to our regular publishing of the English language newsletter, we:
Published an English language Directory of International NGOs Supporting Work in China (1999)
Published an English language Directory of 250 Chinese NGOs (2001)
Created a Chinese language newsletter (from 1999), compiled and written by Chinese staff, to serve as a "capacity building tool" for China's non-profit sector by sharing information about minjian charitable activity to inform social organisations, scholars and government officials. This newsletter has, from its inception, been under Chinese editorial control. (My Chinese is by no means good enough to edit Chinese text so even at the start my role was limited to providing advice and encouragement.) In 2003, this Chinese edition was formally passed to the ownership of a small team of Chinese staff. It and the English language publishing team, which I continue to head, have continued to share office premises, a common brand, and common values, although the ownership, management and financing of the two operations are now separate.
Published a Chinese language Directory of International NGOs Supporting Work in China (2005). The purpose of this venture was to help interested parties in Chinaâ€"including government officialsâ€"to understand the diverse nature, motivations, aims and methods of international NGOs.
Later Years
At the end of 2004, after the separation of the English and Chinese language editions, I re-structured our English language publishing, closing the print magazine and converting to web publishing. (Our material is now posted on a website operated from a UK server, with a monthly newsletter delivered by email.)
At this point, I changed the mission statement of our English publishing, re-articulating it as: "To enhance constructive engagement between China and the world."
This change in publishing method and in mission reflected the changes that had occurred in China and world over the previous decade. The Internet was now used widely (whereas in 1995 when I created the first publication, Yunnan Province was only just beginning to be developed). This greatly increased the amount of information published about China and about the topics that we had been covering.
At the same time, because of the worldwide development of interest in the idea of "corporate social responsibility," many global businesses with operations in China were taking more interest in social issues, and I felt that the publication should no longer have a narrow focus on international "aid," but speak also to a wider range of international entities connected in some ways to China. This was particularly pertinent because, in the light of China's booming economy, many of the Western government donors were beginning to close their aid programs to China.
Meanwhile, and most importantly, after several years in which the West's attention had mainly been focused on the US-led "war on terror," China's peaceful rise was being increasingly noticed and commented upon by Western media, think-tanks and NGOs that did not necessarily have "aid" programs in China.
A great deal of that Western commentary was more or less openly hostile to China, presenting it as a threat to global peace and environmental sustainability and as a place where a cruel, totalitarian government rules over a population who care about nothing except their family's immediate economic interests.
I felt that this was grossly unfair and potentially harmful to the interests of both China and the wider world. It is unfair because, in my view:
Much of the instability in the world still arises from the actions of Western powers (eg, the invasion of Iraq)
A wealthy (and mainly white) minority of the world's population consumes a disproportionately large share of the world's resources and bears the major responsibility for degradation of the global environment
After 150 years of instability and economic blight, China is resuming the place in the world that it fully deserves to occupy and most Chinese people are justly proud of this achievement. I believe that China's senior leadership recognises the need to grow in ways that are environmentally sustainable and socially stable. The international community should recognise, with sympathy and respect, the enormous difficulty of the tasks facing China, rather than simply berating China and encouraging Western populations to fear China.
Mainly, I have been motivated by the fear that, as China continues to grow, Western attitudes towards China may harden, provoking a hardening of Chinese attitudes, and potential trade, diplomatic and even armed conflicts that will serve the interests of precisely no-one.
These views have been consistently apparent in China Development Brief's published editorials over the last two yearsâ€"while our feature articles and news reports have continued to cover a broad range of social issues in ways that seek to represent fairly the government of China's policies and approaches as well as those of international organisations, Chinese scholars, and Chinese non-profit organisations.
A few specific examples will illustrate this editorial approach:
February 2005, Editorial: "China has historically been the subject of more white racism than almost any other country or culture."
March 2005, Editorial criticising Chinese "AIDS activists" in Henan Province: "Now is the time to work with government, not against it."
April 2005, Editorial criticising an irresponsible US State Department grant to a Chinese NGO: "Labour rights groups will stumble if pushed to run too soon."
October 2005, Editorial: "China cannot develop equitably without stable government and leadership; and, apart from the [Communist] Party, there is no other contender for administrative power."
September 2005, Editorial on the impacts of "colour revolutions" on NGO-government relations in China : "International NGOs and foundations . . . should continue to put their case calmly, patiently and, above all, transparently. Their situation is not helped by those in the United States who bray about 'democracy' in ways that inevitably strike much of the world as ideologically imperialist. But this is all the more reason for the NGOs to explain clearly to [the Chinese] government at all levels exactly how they work, and why. And international organisations that are not committed to operating transparently should pack their bags and leave as they have nothing of value to offer the country."
March 2006, Editorial on China's environmental NGOs: "Despite China's security anxieties (heightened by the US State Department's bizarre view of NGOs as a proxy for American interests), green NGOs in China are loyal and patriotic and they still expect and want the government to take a lead."
February 2007, Editorial criticising an Amnesty International report on internal migration in China as being "facile": "This document is not a good starting point for understanding what is going on in China. It shows little or no recognition of the complex forces at work in China's government and society, or of the fact that discrimination against migrants is historically embedded, not just something that 'the government' does to them . . . China's political leaders are not schoolchildren to be ticked off and told to do better; and there are no simple policy switches that can be flicked to make everything alright . . . groups like Amnesty need to learn to treat China with more respect, or they will never be taken seriously here."
April 2007: Editorial on family planning policies argues that these have "played a key role in China's social and economic transformation." It goes on to point out: "Foreigners have generally been quick to deplore the authoritarian nature of the [birth control] policy but slow to acknowledge its role in China's escape from poverty. Even as the world at large grows anxious about China's carbon footprint and the spillage of its population overseas, there is widespread reluctance to acknowledge it might have been a good idea to prevent an extra 800 million Chinese feet from treading on the planet."
In summary, I have constantly striven, as per our mission statement, and for negligible personal gain, to encourage foreigners to approach China constructively, looking for ways to cooperate rather than ways to merely criticise.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of words I have written in this constructive vein, my views have been sought privately by literally hundreds of international aid agencies, NGOs and businesses. In private as in print, I have repeatedly urged all of them to be transparent about what they do and to work as closely as they can with the Chinese authorities, taking the time and showing the respect that is necessary to develop meaningful relationships.
I have been equally open in my relationships with Chinese organisations, individuals, media and government officials.
Ministry of Civil Affairs and National Peoples Congress professional staff have in the past actively sought my views on the development of charity in China and on the creation of an appropriate regulatory framework.
On many occasions I have been invited to make presentations to conferences convened by Chinese government agencies in cooperation with international organisations such as the European Union and the Asian Development Bank.
I have on several occasions been hired by agencies close to the government of Chinaâ€"such as the China Association for NGOs (CANGOS) and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviationâ€"to provide training services for Chinese NGOs.
I have also provided consultancy, training and conference support services to Chinese government agenciesâ€"such as provincial Environment Protection Bureau, Education Bureau, Women's Federation, Agriculture Bureau and Civil Affairs staffâ€"through arrangement with international organisations funding development programs of various kinds.
I have been quoted many times in Chinese print media, and have been invited on seven or eight occasions to appear as an expert commentator on CCTV English language programs (including one live broadcast).
I have been aware over the last two years that China Development Brief has been watched closely by the Chinese security services. I have been as informative and helpful as I can to them, because I believe it is better to work for mutual understanding than to remain in the dark of mutual suspicion and hostility. I have paid out of my own pocket for meals eaten by people who are vague about their identity but who I believe to be security agentsâ€"supplying them, all the while, with information and analysis.
In short, I consider myself to be a very good friend of China, and I personally believe that the government of China should be seeking to support my work, not close it down.
Funding
Over the last year, China Development Brief's English newsletter has recovered approximately 60% of its costs from sale of subscriptions and advertising, and from paid speaking engagements and consultancy work.
Today, the readership profile of our English products remains broadly similar to that given above, at the beginning of our publishing history. However, there has been strong growth of readership among academic institutionsâ€"for example, the libraries of Harvard, Columbia and a dozen other universities provide access to our website among their on-line resources; and many overseas students, including a large number of overseas Chinese, read China Development Brief in pursuit of their studies. Also, our subscribers now include many international corporations such as Adidas, Levi Strauss, Microsoft Nike, etc. Because our total readership has grown substantially, the proportion of government and multilateral agencies in our total readership has shrunk significantly.
The remaining 40% of our income last year derived from donations and small grants. Over the past 12 years, China Development Grant has received modest grant support from the following institutions:
Oxfam Hong Kong
Save the Children UK
The Worldwide Fund for Nature
The Ford Foundation
The Trace Foundation
The Kadoorie Charitable Foundation
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund
The Great Britain-China Centre
The Japan Foundation
ActionAid
The British Council
The Canadian International Development Agency Civil Society Program
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Human Rights Project Fund
The Australian International Development Agency
In addition, in order to generate further income to support our publishing, I have undertaken paid consultancy work for:
The Charities Aid Foundation (UK)
The European Union Beijing Delegation
CARE International
Voluntary Service Overseas
Save the Children UK
The Ford Foundation
The International Fund for Agricultural Development
The United Kingdom Department for International Development
The University of Harvard Centre for Global Equity
JP Morgan Bank
HPBilliton
I have provided unpaid consultancy advice to more global businesses, aid agencies, NGOs and researchers than I could possibly list (an average of at least three per week for the last eight years).
I trust that this will give your leaders a fuller picture of what I have been doing in China, and assist their deliberations.
With best wishes
Nick Young
Dear Policeman Kang,
In order to assist your investigations, I am pleased to supply you with the following background information on what I have been doing in China over the last twelve years. I would ask you to kindly pass this information to your leaders.
Early Years
I established China Development Brief in 1995, when I was living in Yunnan Province, producing the first issue in January 1996. At first it was a print newsletter, published and distributed by a social development research institute at the City University of Hong Kong. At the end of 1997, that institute and I terminated our relationship and I continued to publish and distribute the newsletter through a sole-proprietor business I established for that purpose in Hong Kong.
In the early years, China Development Brief was a specialist, English language newsletter aimed at international organisations providing development assistance to China. At that time, China was receiving more than USD 4 billion each year in government-to-government, multilateral and private aid from overseas. China Development Brief was the only regular and independent publication reporting on how that money was spent. The purpose of the newsletter, as expressed by its mission statement at that time, was "to increase the effectiveness of international aid to China."
For the first 18 months I produced the newsletter single handed. After that, I was joined by a Canadian Chinese volunteer who worked with me full-time for a little more than one year, during which time we also recruited a young Yunnan University graduate to work as an editorial assistant.
Early subscribers to our publication:
Multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and UN system agencies (roughly 10% of the total)
The international aid agencies of donor governments, such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan , Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and the UK. (roughly 10% of the total)
Private international aid donors and agencies, including grant-making foundations and operational NGOs (roughly 70% of the total) Although the total aid to China provided by these agencies was much less than that of governmental and multilateral agencies, they were relatively numerous and, given their smaller budgets, had fewer resources for networking and background research to inform their programming; therefore, it was natural that they should comprise our most significant readership, and that the publication should concentrate on meeting their information needs
Foreign correspondents and media reporting on China (roughly 5% of the total)
Academic institutions and individual scholars based overseas (roughly 5% of the total)
Middle Years
In the summer of 1999, I relocated from Kunming, Yunnan, to Beijing , and started to develop a small team ofâ€"mainly Chineseâ€"colleagues to expand China Development Brief's publishing activities. In addition to our regular publishing of the English language newsletter, we:
Published an English language Directory of International NGOs Supporting Work in China (1999)
Published an English language Directory of 250 Chinese NGOs (2001)
Created a Chinese language newsletter (from 1999), compiled and written by Chinese staff, to serve as a "capacity building tool" for China's non-profit sector by sharing information about minjian charitable activity to inform social organisations, scholars and government officials. This newsletter has, from its inception, been under Chinese editorial control. (My Chinese is by no means good enough to edit Chinese text so even at the start my role was limited to providing advice and encouragement.) In 2003, this Chinese edition was formally passed to the ownership of a small team of Chinese staff. It and the English language publishing team, which I continue to head, have continued to share office premises, a common brand, and common values, although the ownership, management and financing of the two operations are now separate.
Published a Chinese language Directory of International NGOs Supporting Work in China (2005). The purpose of this venture was to help interested parties in Chinaâ€"including government officialsâ€"to understand the diverse nature, motivations, aims and methods of international NGOs.
Later Years
At the end of 2004, after the separation of the English and Chinese language editions, I re-structured our English language publishing, closing the print magazine and converting to web publishing. (Our material is now posted on a website operated from a UK server, with a monthly newsletter delivered by email.)
At this point, I changed the mission statement of our English publishing, re-articulating it as: "To enhance constructive engagement between China and the world."
This change in publishing method and in mission reflected the changes that had occurred in China and world over the previous decade. The Internet was now used widely (whereas in 1995 when I created the first publication, Yunnan Province was only just beginning to be developed). This greatly increased the amount of information published about China and about the topics that we had been covering.
At the same time, because of the worldwide development of interest in the idea of "corporate social responsibility," many global businesses with operations in China were taking more interest in social issues, and I felt that the publication should no longer have a narrow focus on international "aid," but speak also to a wider range of international entities connected in some ways to China. This was particularly pertinent because, in the light of China's booming economy, many of the Western government donors were beginning to close their aid programs to China.
Meanwhile, and most importantly, after several years in which the West's attention had mainly been focused on the US-led "war on terror," China's peaceful rise was being increasingly noticed and commented upon by Western media, think-tanks and NGOs that did not necessarily have "aid" programs in China.
A great deal of that Western commentary was more or less openly hostile to China, presenting it as a threat to global peace and environmental sustainability and as a place where a cruel, totalitarian government rules over a population who care about nothing except their family's immediate economic interests.
I felt that this was grossly unfair and potentially harmful to the interests of both China and the wider world. It is unfair because, in my view:
Much of the instability in the world still arises from the actions of Western powers (eg, the invasion of Iraq)
A wealthy (and mainly white) minority of the world's population consumes a disproportionately large share of the world's resources and bears the major responsibility for degradation of the global environment
After 150 years of instability and economic blight, China is resuming the place in the world that it fully deserves to occupy and most Chinese people are justly proud of this achievement. I believe that China's senior leadership recognises the need to grow in ways that are environmentally sustainable and socially stable. The international community should recognise, with sympathy and respect, the enormous difficulty of the tasks facing China, rather than simply berating China and encouraging Western populations to fear China.
Mainly, I have been motivated by the fear that, as China continues to grow, Western attitudes towards China may harden, provoking a hardening of Chinese attitudes, and potential trade, diplomatic and even armed conflicts that will serve the interests of precisely no-one.
These views have been consistently apparent in China Development Brief's published editorials over the last two yearsâ€"while our feature articles and news reports have continued to cover a broad range of social issues in ways that seek to represent fairly the government of China's policies and approaches as well as those of international organisations, Chinese scholars, and Chinese non-profit organisations.
A few specific examples will illustrate this editorial approach:
February 2005, Editorial: "China has historically been the subject of more white racism than almost any other country or culture."
March 2005, Editorial criticising Chinese "AIDS activists" in Henan Province: "Now is the time to work with government, not against it."
April 2005, Editorial criticising an irresponsible US State Department grant to a Chinese NGO: "Labour rights groups will stumble if pushed to run too soon."
October 2005, Editorial: "China cannot develop equitably without stable government and leadership; and, apart from the [Communist] Party, there is no other contender for administrative power."
September 2005, Editorial on the impacts of "colour revolutions" on NGO-government relations in China : "International NGOs and foundations . . . should continue to put their case calmly, patiently and, above all, transparently. Their situation is not helped by those in the United States who bray about 'democracy' in ways that inevitably strike much of the world as ideologically imperialist. But this is all the more reason for the NGOs to explain clearly to [the Chinese] government at all levels exactly how they work, and why. And international organisations that are not committed to operating transparently should pack their bags and leave as they have nothing of value to offer the country."
March 2006, Editorial on China's environmental NGOs: "Despite China's security anxieties (heightened by the US State Department's bizarre view of NGOs as a proxy for American interests), green NGOs in China are loyal and patriotic and they still expect and want the government to take a lead."
February 2007, Editorial criticising an Amnesty International report on internal migration in China as being "facile": "This document is not a good starting point for understanding what is going on in China. It shows little or no recognition of the complex forces at work in China's government and society, or of the fact that discrimination against migrants is historically embedded, not just something that 'the government' does to them . . . China's political leaders are not schoolchildren to be ticked off and told to do better; and there are no simple policy switches that can be flicked to make everything alright . . . groups like Amnesty need to learn to treat China with more respect, or they will never be taken seriously here."
April 2007: Editorial on family planning policies argues that these have "played a key role in China's social and economic transformation." It goes on to point out: "Foreigners have generally been quick to deplore the authoritarian nature of the [birth control] policy but slow to acknowledge its role in China's escape from poverty. Even as the world at large grows anxious about China's carbon footprint and the spillage of its population overseas, there is widespread reluctance to acknowledge it might have been a good idea to prevent an extra 800 million Chinese feet from treading on the planet."
In summary, I have constantly striven, as per our mission statement, and for negligible personal gain, to encourage foreigners to approach China constructively, looking for ways to cooperate rather than ways to merely criticise.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of words I have written in this constructive vein, my views have been sought privately by literally hundreds of international aid agencies, NGOs and businesses. In private as in print, I have repeatedly urged all of them to be transparent about what they do and to work as closely as they can with the Chinese authorities, taking the time and showing the respect that is necessary to develop meaningful relationships.
I have been equally open in my relationships with Chinese organisations, individuals, media and government officials.
Ministry of Civil Affairs and National Peoples Congress professional staff have in the past actively sought my views on the development of charity in China and on the creation of an appropriate regulatory framework.
On many occasions I have been invited to make presentations to conferences convened by Chinese government agencies in cooperation with international organisations such as the European Union and the Asian Development Bank.
I have on several occasions been hired by agencies close to the government of Chinaâ€"such as the China Association for NGOs (CANGOS) and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviationâ€"to provide training services for Chinese NGOs.
I have also provided consultancy, training and conference support services to Chinese government agenciesâ€"such as provincial Environment Protection Bureau, Education Bureau, Women's Federation, Agriculture Bureau and Civil Affairs staffâ€"through arrangement with international organisations funding development programs of various kinds.
I have been quoted many times in Chinese print media, and have been invited on seven or eight occasions to appear as an expert commentator on CCTV English language programs (including one live broadcast).
I have been aware over the last two years that China Development Brief has been watched closely by the Chinese security services. I have been as informative and helpful as I can to them, because I believe it is better to work for mutual understanding than to remain in the dark of mutual suspicion and hostility. I have paid out of my own pocket for meals eaten by people who are vague about their identity but who I believe to be security agentsâ€"supplying them, all the while, with information and analysis.
In short, I consider myself to be a very good friend of China, and I personally believe that the government of China should be seeking to support my work, not close it down.
Funding
Over the last year, China Development Brief's English newsletter has recovered approximately 60% of its costs from sale of subscriptions and advertising, and from paid speaking engagements and consultancy work.
Today, the readership profile of our English products remains broadly similar to that given above, at the beginning of our publishing history. However, there has been strong growth of readership among academic institutionsâ€"for example, the libraries of Harvard, Columbia and a dozen other universities provide access to our website among their on-line resources; and many overseas students, including a large number of overseas Chinese, read China Development Brief in pursuit of their studies. Also, our subscribers now include many international corporations such as Adidas, Levi Strauss, Microsoft Nike, etc. Because our total readership has grown substantially, the proportion of government and multilateral agencies in our total readership has shrunk significantly.
The remaining 40% of our income last year derived from donations and small grants. Over the past 12 years, China Development Grant has received modest grant support from the following institutions:
Oxfam Hong Kong
Save the Children UK
The Worldwide Fund for Nature
The Ford Foundation
The Trace Foundation
The Kadoorie Charitable Foundation
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund
The Great Britain-China Centre
The Japan Foundation
ActionAid
The British Council
The Canadian International Development Agency Civil Society Program
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Human Rights Project Fund
The Australian International Development Agency
In addition, in order to generate further income to support our publishing, I have undertaken paid consultancy work for:
The Charities Aid Foundation (UK)
The European Union Beijing Delegation
CARE International
Voluntary Service Overseas
Save the Children UK
The Ford Foundation
The International Fund for Agricultural Development
The United Kingdom Department for International Development
The University of Harvard Centre for Global Equity
JP Morgan Bank
HPBilliton
I have provided unpaid consultancy advice to more global businesses, aid agencies, NGOs and researchers than I could possibly list (an average of at least three per week for the last eight years).
I trust that this will give your leaders a fuller picture of what I have been doing in China, and assist their deliberations.
With best wishes
Nick Young
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