Charity workers in China say NGOs being ‘pulled out by the roots’

A slew of crackdown on non-government organisations on the mainland in the past couple of years, culminating in Swedish NGO worker Peter Dahlin being paraded on state TV this week, has left many charity workers feeling jittery about their future.

State media on Tuesday accused Peter Dahlin, 35, of setting up Chinese Urgent Action Working Group with rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang to carry out activities that “endanger state security”. It also accused the Hong Kong-registered group of receiving overseas funding to carry out “criminal activities” without stating which laws they broke.

Some of the country’s most progressive, independent NGOs have been targets in the government’s latest crackdown on civil society. Although the authorities have always kept a close eye on the sector, critics say in the past couple of years, the crackdown has noticeably stepped up, with NGOs closed and their workers detained, arrested or jailed.

READ MORE - Detained Swedish NGO worker Peter Dahlin’s colleague refutes accusation that his group endangered China’s security

Guo Yushan, founder of the nongovernmental think tank Transition Institute, was held for nearly a year before he was released in September. His organisation, which conducted research on social and economic issues, was closed by the Beijing authorities in 2013.

In September 2014, Liren, an NGO that had run two dozen rural libraries across China closed down, citing pressure from the local government.

In March last year, five women activists who planned to demonstrate against sexual harassment on public transport were detained for more than a month.

In June last year, Guo Bin and Yang Zhanging two activists who used to work for anti-discrimination NGO Beijing Yirenping were detained for “illegal business activities.” The Yirenping office was also raided and closed in March.

Earlier this month, Chinese police formally arrested four labour activists on the charge of “disturbing social order”. State media accused them of “accepting financial support from overseas organisations” and “inciting workers to assemble a crowd and stir up trouble”.