A New Generation Of Chinese Social Entrepreneurs Is Emerging In Africa

In much of the West, an NGO is often considered to be an independent entity, thus the name “nongovernmental.” In China, though, it is not that simple. Independent civil society groups, especially foreign groups, are largely viewed with suspicion by the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. Over the past 12 to 18 months, the government has enacted a series of harsh new regulations to restrict the activities of both domestic and foreign NGOs operating within the country. The CCP, for its part, is worried about any organization, particularly those that deal with sensitive social issues like the environment, legal reform and human rights, as potential threats to its political supremacy. So facing pressure at home, an increasing number of Chinese nonprofits are turning abroad.

So while the Western definition of an NGO is that it is inherently “nongovernmental,” in the Chinese context that distinction is far more blurry as the lines that divide the state, the party and state-owned companies from one another are often harder to see. Within that matrix is fairly new kind of development organization known as a “GONGO” or Government-Organized Non-Governmental Organization. Typically, these GONGOs operate development projects as an extension of political or diplomatic agendas abroad, as is the case with Chinese GONGOs in certain parts of Africa.