An Analysis of the Diverse Forms of Public Advocacy in China
China Development Brief
March 2013
Foreword
“Allowing the voiceless to have a voice, and those with a voice to multiply.” This slogan is a mantra for
our age and a development consensus brought about by the reforms. It describes a social function that
the media needs to take on, and an aim to be promoted by civil society organizations and publicspirited
citizens. The last few years have seen the emergence of diverse forms of advocacy in the public
sphere. In this report, we have selected some public advocacy actions and events carried out by NGOs,
media, representatives of marginalized groups, and individual citizens and netizens. These groups and
individuals address a variety of topics and events, using multiple perspectives, strategies and methods
to promote changes in our system and environment in the name of good governance and justice.
Together, they constitute a civil society developing through rights-based advocacy.
This report is not an academic study in the strict sense of the word, but rather uses selected case studies
to make observations about the development of public advocacy in China over the last few years. We
hope to start from the notion of rights-based advocacy to provide a guide for observing the
development of civil society for both researchers and activists.
Chapter 1 Introduction
I. Background
In order to address and resolve societal problems, NGOs generally engage in both service provision and
advocacy. Even though these two roles are often integrated in NGO work, they also reflect different
approaches to the promotion of social development and equality. The imbalanced power dynamic that
currently exists between Chinese state and society has led to the development of a civil society which
emphasizes service provision over advocacy. According to an investigation by the Tsinghua University
NGO Research Institute (清华大学 NGO 研究所), “NGOs located in areas where policies have been
relaxed find it easy to obtain resources, which has resulted in the proliferation of mediocre service
organizations. But in the fields which most urgently require citizens' participation, including the public
policy fields of unemployment, social security, labor rights protection, international territory conflicts,
and diplomacy, there are few active NGOs.” 1
The scholar Kang Xiaoguang [of Renmin University] also noted that “the third sector currently plays a
significant role in actions which benefit the government and enterprise, such as promoting economic
development, providing public services, and leading and promoting social innovation. However, in
terms of actions which might seek to limit the power of the government and enterprise, such as
opposing the tyranny of the market, participating in public policy decision making, and promoting
democratic transformation, the third sector is hardly involved at all.” He goes on to explain that, “In
China's present situation, there are no safeguards for advocacy organizations. When the interests of
marginalized social groups clash directly with those of businesses, third sector organizations have little
power to help marginalized groups oppose the tyranny of the market.” 2
A major reason for this imbalance between advocacy and service provision is the limited environment
for NGO work. “On the one hand, organizations are the most important vehicle for implementing
collective action, and collective action is the most powerful way to challenge the authority of
government. Therefore, any single organization has the potential to challenge the authority of
government. On the other hand, social organizations also have the ability to supply public services and
can help the government to meet societal needs.” 3
When NGOs aim to influence policy, their
advocacy methods are restricted by the policy space. Further, NGOs seeking to operate within the small
space for advocacy are limited by additional factors such as their own capacity.
Kang describes the tactics that the government employs to manage social organizations as a form of
control. These include limiting the development of advocacy organizations and using social
organizations to meet the needs of society, while simultaneously suppressing the space for
organizations' autonomy and initiative.
In 2006, after researching the advocacy approach of 40 NGOs, China Development Brief published its
NGO Advocacy in China report. At that time, Chinese civil society was undergoing a gradual evolution
with the following characteristics:
1
王名、贾西津，《中国 NGO 的发展分析》，《管理世界》，2002 年第 8 期
2
康晓光、冯利，《中国第三部门观察报告（2011）》，中国社科文献出版社.
3
康晓光、卢宪英、韩恒，《改革时代的国家与社会关系——行政吸纳社会》，《中国民间组织 30 年——走向
公民社会》，社会科学文献出版社，2008.
1) There was a clear separation between the government, business and NGOs, and there was not
much synergy or interaction between the third sector and the other two sectors.
2) NGOs were stifled by the dual management system and relied largely on international funding
sources.
3) Public awareness of NGOs was relatively low and charity work had not yet become a hot topic
in the media.
In this context, the report presented the following findings:
A large number of NGOs positioned themselves as “advisors and assistants to the government,”
emphasizing their roles as collaborators, rather than critics, of government and business. “All
organizations that responded to the survey tried to foster constructive relations with the government
and society.” No respondent expressed opposition to the government or “held different political views
from the government.” All grassroots NGOs, without exception, expressed the desire to develop
positive relations with the government.
“Very rarely did any respondent express any concerns about business or the private sector.” From this
statement, it can be understood that NGOs rarely used advocacy to influence businesses. At that time,
the NGO and business sectors rarely interacted.
“Most NGOs, including both GONGOs and grassroots NGOs, identified 'the whole of society' as the
target of their work.” The questionnaire revealed that “raising public awareness” was identified as an
important goal twice as frequently as “improving government policy.”
All organizations emphasized the importance of the role of the media; researchers, academics, and
GONGOs had the most advantageous space for advocacy.
Generally speaking, the space for NGO public advocacy and public debate was severely restricted at
that time, due to limited public influence and restrictions on modes of communication. The most wellknown
public advocacy cases were generally concentrated in the field of environmental protection,
such as the opposition to the construction of the Nu River dams and the movements to protect the
Yunnan golden-nosed monkey and the Tibetan antelope. However, these campaigns existed only as
isolated cases, and NGOs rarely became involved in public debates.
With the passage of time, particularly after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, the structure of Chinese
civil society began to undergo significant changes. The legal and social environment for NGOs
changed dramatically, particularly in terms of legitimacy, resources (both funding and personnel),
issues addressed, action strategies, and program operations. Under the government's “social
management innovation” (社会管理创新) initiative, NGOs experienced a relaxing of controls, and a
number of localities introduced government service procurement measures. In 2004, the “Regulations
for the Management of Foundations” (基金会管理条例) for private foundations opened up a new
space for social organizations, and Chinese civil society was able to increase local resources and
support outside of the state. In particular, after the 2008 earthquake, businesses began to pay more
attention to NGOs, and to support their activities. The increased support of business and government
led to significant diversification in funding sources, action strategies, and innovation within public
interest circles. Other trends include sectoral specialization among research organizations (think tanks),
donors (foundations), NGO capacity-building organizations, corporate CSR consultancies, and
grassroots action organizations, and an emerging division of labor within the larger public interest
supply chain.
In the context of new government policies concerning government procurement of social services and
“social management innovation,” NGOs have demonstrated greater accountability and transparency,
increasing their level of professionalism and gradually moving into the mainstream. At the same time,
in addition to the traditional methods of cooperating with the government, a “rights-based” perspective
has led to new advocacy strategies seeking to increase public pressure on the government through the
media and social media. As the social space has grown then, we can see that NGO advocacy
approaches and methods have diversified.
In this current period of substantial societal development, it is important to consider its direction.
According to a report by the Tsinghua University Sociology Department’s Social Development
Research Group (清华大学社会学系社会发展研究课题组), “The root of social development lies in
the cultivation of a society-based approach, especially the cultivation of self-organized social spaces.
Social development should not be determined by the powerful, or by the market; nor can it be
summarized as promoting social activities, social management institutions, and community
development. Rather, it is the realization of one’s own social autonomy and the construction of a civil
society space. The goal of social development is to check authority, to control capital, and to curb
social disorder.”4
One way to “check authority and control capital” is through effective public advocacy. In contemporary
Chinese civil society, a number of advocacy voices and activists have generated open dialogues with
government and businesses on topics such as the environment and vulnerable groups. They aim to
address rights infringement and inequitable power dynamics, to encourage policy reform, and to
highlight corporate misconduct and society's expectations for government and corporate accountability.
On this basis, this project has selected influential advocacy cases from recent years, and combed
through other relevant literature and materials, in order to examine the space for advocacy and
strategies for action. Our intention is to provide models for grassroots organizers and supporters, and to
improve the exchange of information and communication between the international community, local
NGOs, the Chinese government, businesses, and media.
II. The Definition of Public Advocacy
The term changdao (倡导) is derived from the western term “advocacy/advocate,” a term which is
defined and understood differently by the academic and civil society communities in each country.5
According to the US group NPAction, advocacy is a political process involving individual or group
efforts to influence public policy and politics, resource allocation, and social institutions. Advocacy
may be based on morality, ethics, or faith, or it may be limited to appeals to protect individual rights.6
4
清华大学社会学系社会发展研究课题组，《以利益表达制度化实现社会的长治久安》，《领导者》总第 33 期
（2010 年 4 月）.
5
参见全球消除贫困联盟-中国网络组织,《什么是倡导?——倡导的概念与辨析》,
http://www.cdb.org.cn/ngo_talkview.php?id=1796.
6
Lobbying Versus Advocacy: Legal Definitions". NP Action. Archived from the original on 2 April 2010. Retrieved
According to a NGO Advocacy Handbook published by the Social Resources Institution (SRI) in
October 2012, “Advocacy is when ordinary citizens, particularly vulnerable and marginalized groups,
recognize and utilize their own strength to participate in the formulation of laws and public policies
which relate to them, in order to address unequal treatment and create a just society.”
These definitions highlight ordinary citizens and citizen groups as the main actors behind advocacy
efforts, the importance of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in these efforts, along with the role of
NGOs in organizing citizens or acting as an agent for citizens' interests. These definitions also stress
other characteristics of advocacy, such as an orientation toward changing policies, systems, and power
relations, and the participation of vulnerable/disadvantaged persons.
China Development Brief's NGO Advocacy in China report7
set forth the following categories: legal
advocacy, human rights advocacy, policy research advocacy, constituency based advocacy,
campaigning advocacy, social movement advocacy, and lobbying/direct communication. Some of these
methods, such as campaigning advocacy and social movement advocacy, are carried out in public
spaces. Others, such as legal advocacy and policy research advocacy, are carried out by professionals
and occur within the system. The rest could be described as a combination of the two. Different
advocacy strategies also incorporate different levels of confrontation and pressure directed at their
targets.
As the project background stated, the development of civil society in recent years has seen the
advancement of NGO and citizen advocacy capabilities, which start from a “rights-based” perspective
to assert public pressure and moderate resistance through platforms such as the media and social media.
As the social space has grown, advocacy agents, concepts, and methods have diversified. For the scope
of this report, we will focus on “public advocacy” carried out by civil society.
We believe that public advocacy involves the actions of public interest organizations, individual
citizens (including vulnerable and marginalized groups), and media groups focused on these issues.
These groups use a variety of methods to speak out, create and publicize public events, and expand
the public’s influence so as to push for changes in government public policy and resource allocation,
enforcement of corporate social responsibility policies, and existing cultural and social structures.
This definition clarifies the primary actors, target groups, and goals of public advocacy. It should be
noted that the target groups for advocacy include not only powerful actors such as government and
business organizations, but also the general public. This perspective is somewhat different from that of
international and some Chinese organizations. The Global Call to Action Against Poverty - China
(GCAP China), for example, holds that the public should not be a target for advocacy, and argues that a
focus on the public can distract from advocacy targeted at the government. GCAP cites environmental
education efforts as an example of projects which overemphasize the role of individuals and families,
rather than concentrating on the government's responsibility in environmental protection.8
We believe, however, that because China’s public awareness about certain issues is still low, the public
itself can be a source of oppression against marginalized or disadvantaged groups, such as
2010-03-02 转引自 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy#cite_note-1.
7
中国发展简报，《国际非政府组织倡导在中国的现状》，2006 年 9 月.
8
全球消除贫困联盟-中国网络组织,《什么是倡导?——倡导的概念与辨析》,
http://www.cdb.org.cn/ngo_talkview.php?id=1796
discrimination against those with hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, and the deep-rooted, traditional notions of
patriarchy in China. In some circumstances, addressing the public is an important step toward effecting
change in existing social structures. Moreover, directly addressing the public can serve as a basis for
broader social mobilization and as a foundation for change among government and business institutions.
Therefore, our definition of public advocacy emphasizes the use of public pressure as a part of
advocacy.
The recent development of civil society and the rapid growth in public advocacy has been propelled by
intensifying social conflict in recent years. The strengthening of civil society and its ability to mobilize
are also due in part to the role of the internet as a new space for expression. From another perspective,
public advocacy's development is also closely related to the lack of channels for dialogue within the
system, the difficulty in meeting the upsurge in demands from the public, and the limited professional
advocacy abilities of NGOs. Lacking institutionalized mechanisms for expression, the public and
NGOs have relied on grassroots action to exert social pressure, interacting informally with government
and business.
In fact, Chinese NGOs have created interesting localized variations on traditional advocacy strategies.
These have included influencing government and business decision-making through institutionalized
channels within the system and professional recommendations, carrying out advocacy through
collaboration with government and business, and combining advocacy with social service provision by
using social services to promote advocacy. These are all advocacy strategies explored under special
circumstances and are worthy of affirming, summarizing and sharing, and in the current stage
constitute mainstream approaches to effective NGO advocacy. Because this report’s focus is on
examining different public advocacy strategies, however, less attention will be devoted to these
mainstream approaches.
Public advocacy has never been composed of a singular strategy. Rather, in our observations of NGOs’
public advocacy efforts, we have seen increased emphasis on professionalization, and use of research
and data compilation in order to comprehend and analyze policies. Therefore, it is important to note
that NGOs should not take a singular approach to advocacy, but rather use many traditional methods
that complement one another.
III. The Conceptual Value of Public Advocacy
Public advocacy refers not only to public participation in policy change and social reform but also to a
fundamental means for promoting the concept of public participation.
Public participation has three conceptual components. The first is mobilization of people and public
education. It involves encouraging the public to understand and support government policies, respect
the law, and participate in the government’s social agendas. The second is emphasizing “consultation
with stakeholders.” This means empowering the people and listening to opinions from affected
communities. The third are the people's inalienable rights. These principles are reflected in a number of
international conventions, to many of which China is a signatory.9
Many western NGOs, development
organizations, and environmental groups have reached a general consensus on these principles,
declaring them "universal values.” In recent years, a number of Chinese NGOs and individual citizens
involved in public advocacy have also come to adopt these principles as a foundation for their own
9
高飏，《参与环境决策：三种理念，三种工具》，中国发展简报 2002 年秋季刊
efforts. As this report makes clear, public advocacy across all sectors cannot be separated from public
participation.
In the third component of public participation, we can see that citizens' rights are at the core of public
advocacy, and its source of legitimacy. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
result of humanity’s experience with war, violence, and suffering, is a shared foundation for advancing
rights across the globe. Two international human rights conventions, the “International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights” and the “International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,”
reflect the different understandings and corresponding systems that have developed after World War II
in the East and West. These differences, in turn, have created “biases” in the conceptual guidelines and
practices for safeguarding human rights.
TABLE
International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights
（China is a signatory）
International Covenant on Economic,
Social, and Cultural Rights
（China is a signatory, and has ratified）
Freedom of expression
Freedom of association
Prohibition of torture
Equality before the law
Right to privacy
Right to a fair trial
Right to vote
Right to health
Right to work
Right to food
Right to education
Right to establish unions
Right to social security
Source:《了解：人权知识框架》（面向艾滋病草根组织的人权课程）
In addition to these two conventions, China has also joined the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. These three core human rights conventions together
constitute the United Nations Human Rights Charter.
Globalization has strengthened China’s ties to the rest of the world. Aside from economic integration
through trade and investment, interactions in the political, social and public spheres have also increased.
Due to some countries' promotion of subsistence rights as a human right, many countries are
confronted with the opportunity and challenges of altering their basic principles of governance. As civil
rights awareness grows, there is an urgent need to advance equal opportunities, to ensure the protection
of one's safety and dignity, and to enjoy freedom of expression.
The crux of the problem lies in the unchecked power of the state and the market, which makes it
difficult to fully protect citizens’ rights to subsistence and development and, in many cases, infringes on
their individual rights. Given these principles, we can see that, as human history has unfolded, the
human rights included in the two aforementioned United Nations conventions are complementary and
very difficult to separate. Civil and political rights are, in fact, the foundation for safeguarding the
rights to life and development. A right to development without freedom of speech is bound to become a
right in name only. Only when both types of rights are fairly granted to the public will there be checks
and balances in the state and markets and safeguards for harmonious social development.
Current inequities in the distribution of resources and opportunities for development have led to an
interesting contradiction-- as “stability maintenance” has become a top government priority,
“government efforts to maintain stability have themselves increased social instability. Since current
government thinking on maintaining stability is often predicated on suppressing the expression of
legitimate interests, a vicious circle has been formed. As more emphasis is placed on maintaining social
stability, governments, especially local governments, are less able to tolerate citizens voicing their
interests. As citizens have fewer opportunities to effectively express their interests, social structures
have become more unequal, especially for those who are disenfranchised or have grievances. As social
structures become more unequal, conflicts of interest and discontent become more acute. As legitimate
interests are increasingly suppressed, more groups or individuals can only look for redress outside of
the system, sometimes even resorting to violence, to express their dissatisfaction, creating increasingly
fierce social conflict. As social conflict becomes more acute, the government must focus more on
maintaining stability. Thus, the vicious cycle of social instability is complete.”10
A rights-based approach, particularly a pluralistic approach based on the right to expression, is the only
effective path for “maintaining stability.” This requires striking a balance between collective and
personal values, national and personal interests, and the interests of diverse stakeholders. As noted by a
Tsinghua University research group, "A good system does not eliminate conflict; it accommodates and
finds institutionalized methods to resolve the conflict.” 11
The Tsinghua report suggests that in order to break the cycle of “stability maintenance leading to more
instability,” we must move beyond the rigid thinking of the past and create new mechanisms to resolve
social conflict. This might include additional avenues for accessing information, aggregating citizen
interests, expressing demands, applying pressure, consulting, mediating, and arbitrating. Although these
mechanisms are still far from complete in their ability to effectively respond to legitimate interests
expressed by social groups, our case studies reveal that more organizations and individuals have begun
utilizing and expanding upon these existing options. They are using open-source government
information, public pressure, public declarations, and consultations to carry out public advocacy
directed at government and private corporations, and exploring societal mechanisms for resolving
social contradictions and conflicts.
In terms of the government, an important step towards improving consultation and citizen participation
is to use all available formal and informal mechanisms to institutionalize public advocacy, legalize
civic spaces, and strengthen the expressive ability of social organizations. From the government's
perspective, it might appear easier to “maintain stability” and use its resources to monopolize public
welfare services, rather than to allow space for independent social groups, foster citizen organizations,
and promote civil society. However, the current situation, in which “stability maintenance leads to
more instability,” reminds us that to engage with an array of stakeholders, resolve complex conflicts,
enhance government capacity, and promote good governance, we must find a new paradigm for
“maintaining stability.” We must develop and enhance the capacity of NGOs and civil society,
especially in terms of social service provision, public advocacy, and the ability to express stakeholder
interests.
10
清华大学社会学系社会发展研究课题组，《以利益表达制度化实现社会的长治久安》，《领导者》总第
33 期（2010 年 4 月）
11
清华大学社会学系社会发展研究课题组，《以利益表达制度化实现社会的长治久安》，《领导者》总第
33 期（2010 年 4 月）
Many of the case studies cited in this report are actions carried out by citizens with a rights-based
perspective and a bottom-up approach, such as efforts to promote equal employment rights for people
with Hepatitis B and AIDS, new social movements in environmental protection, and women's rights
organizations advocating against domestic violence and for equal access to education and employment.
Their legitimacy draws on sources such as international conventions and existing national legislation.
Their voices and acts of “dissent” represent public participation in the decision-making process, using
pragmatic discourse to test the flexibility and openness of the system.
Government policies of social construction and social management should serve to “maintain stability”
through its high ideals, understanding of the diversity of rights that exist, and justice. Stability should
not be maintained by using power to eliminate dissent and conceal contradictions, but rather by using
free expression and association to uncover problems and resolve them in accordance with regulations.
While it is possible that public advocacy, in some cases, will reveal tension or antagonism between
state and society, this is in fact a normal social condition. Taiwan's social movements began by
challenging the system, but as a civic space opened, they evolved into a community-building process.
Social movements in Hong Kong similarly evolved from confrontation to cooperation as the system
changed to allow greater openness and inclusiveness. The experience of these two regions can serve as
an important point of reference.
IV: The Report’s Methodology
This report utilizes recent public advocacy literature, especially literature and media reports related to
specific events, and interviews with those involved in public advocacy. Chinese academic research on
public advocacy is used sparsely, but we touch upon significant public advocacy movements, including
environmental and AIDS / hepatitis B initiatives, new advocacy tactics such as social media and
influential lawsuits, and advocacy strategies and policies introduced from the West. This report will
provide a brief summary of the details of these developments.
Our interview subjects included fifteen NGO professionals and social media figures who have engaged
in public advocacy in the following sectors: civil society development, environmental protection,
public health and medicine, gender, labor rights, human rights, NGO capacity building, and others.
Combining documentary research with interviews provided more in-depth results and allowed us to
delve into the particular characteristics of Chinese public advocacy.
In addition, to compensate for the dearth of academic research, we have compiled materials on
advocacy principles, operations, and tools that have been produced in recent years by NGOs, and have
included them as appendices. These materials are a useful reference for learning more about the
fundamental values and principles of NGO advocacy, practical case studies, and advocacy strategies.
Chapter 2 The Rapid Growth of Public Advocacy
Since the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, China’s civil society landscape has gone through
significant changes. Benefiting from liberalization in the government’s policies regarding social
management innovation and social organization registration, and the expansion of government
outsourcing to social organizations, NGOs have grown rapidly in numbers. In addition, the rise of
private foundations, fueled by corporate funding and support, has also strengthened the power of civil
society. Specifically, the development of the advocacy functions of civil society and NGOs has
benefited from a more developed legal system, greater awareness of citizen rights and responsibilities,
and the rise of social media coming to the fore.
I. Changes in the legal environment of public advocacy
The presence of laws is an important prerequisite that influences civil society’s participation in the
policy process and engagement in public advocacy. Since advocacy issues came to China in the 1990s,
the scope and impact of public advocacy has been limited due in large part to the lack of relevant laws
and policies and to problems in the implementation of existing regulations. Since the turn of the
millennium, the government has stressed “administration according to law” and issued a State Council
Decision Regarding Comprehensively Promoting Administration According to the Law (1999) as well
as the Program for Comprehensively Promoting Administration by Law (2004), and continued to
improve the legal system. In addition to the existing Administrative Procedure Law and Environmental
Protection Law, they have issued Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information, made
amendments to the Civil Procedure Law, and increased provisions for public interest litigation. There
are still many problems in effectively implementing these laws and regulations, and these problems
have had a direct and concrete effect on public advocacy. However, their existence serves as a
foundation for many NGOs and citizens to engage in public advocacy within this legal space, and
thereby promote the gradual improvement of the law.
A. Using the Administrative Procedure Law to promote government administration according to law
In 1989, China issued an Administrative Procedure Law, breaking from the tradition of officials
governing without citizen oversight. This Law provided an important channel for citizens to monitor
administrative agencies and became an important foundation for promoting administration according to
law. [Editor’s Note: The Administrative Procedure Law allows for citizens to file lawsuits against
government agencies.] Of course, some scholars point out that while the Administrative Procedure
Law has been in effect for more than 20 years, there have been few cases, few verdicts and few rulings
in favor of the plaintiff. Its ability to resolve administrative disputes, protect citizens' rights and
monitor administration by law has been seriously limited. A 2002 judicial interpretation of section 52 of
the Administrative Procedure Law provoked widespread controversy, raising suspicion that government
agencies have engaged in several cover-ups.
In spite of these problems, the introduction of the Administrative Procedure Law gave legal recourse to
citizens whose rights had been trampled on by administrative agencies; many individuals and
organizations have filed influential lawsuits as a result of its passage and it has became an important
tool for public advocacy. In 2003, an Anhui university graduate who came first in the provincial civil
service recruitment exam was nonetheless rejected because he was found to have hepatitis B. The
student initiated an administrative lawsuit which became China's first case of employment
discrimination. Since then, the lawsuit has repeatedly appeared in newspapers. In recent years, similar
administrative lawsuits have expanded to other fields, such as the 2009 "height discrimination” case,
where four exam candidates sued the Bureau of Education in Shaoyang, Hunan; the 2010 "genetic
discrimination" case which saw three candidates sue the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau
of Foshan, Guangdong; the 2010 "HIV employment discrimination" case which saw Anhui teacher
Xiao Wu sue the local Department of Education; as well as the first case of gender discrimination in
employment launched by female students in 2012. In these cases, the prosecution and public interest
lawyers relied on laws like the PRC Employment Promotion Law enacted in 2007 and the two-decadeold
Administrative Procedure Law. Some of the lawsuits were successful, further promoting the
implementation and improvement of laws and policies.
In 2013, modifications to the Administrative Procedure Law were included on the legislative agenda.
The Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC)
is currently collecting and studying opinions and questions concerning these modifications. Public
advocates are demanding an expansion in the scope of cases brought, promotion of civil rights and a
guarantee that the law can feasibly be carried out and enforced.
B. Citizens Promoting Implementation of the Regulations on Open Government Information and
Environmental Information Disclosure
On May 1, 2008, Regulations on Open Government Information and Trial Measures for the Disclosure
of Environmental Information came into effect, after which a growing number of citizens and NGOs
advocated for more access to information. In 2012, college students pressured the Shaanxi Work Safety
Administration to publicly reveal the salary of its chief Yang Dacai, nicknamed "Uncle Wristwatch"
because of his penchant for sporting luxury watches. In response to gender discrimination in college
admissions, women's rights activist LüPin lobbied the Ministry of Education to disclose information
about the national college entrance exams. Both cases took advantage of the regulations regarding open
access to government information.
The Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information has also gained considerable public
notice. The number of environmental information disclosure requests received by the Department of
Environmental Protection grew from 72 in 2009 to 226 in 2010, an increase of 205 percent. The
introduction of the Environmental Information Disclosure measure complements similar measures
allowing for public participation in environmental impact assessments (EIA) and environmental
litigation. Deputy Director of the environmental NGO Friends of Nature (自然之友) Chang Cheng
believes that "the Regulations on Open Government Information, the introduction of laws related to
public participation in EIA and the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information, have
made it possible to establish the innovative practice of environmental courts in various places in
China."
In 2011, Friends of Nature held a seminar in Beijing on the third anniversary of the Regulations on
Open Government Information and the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information. A
number of citizens and scholars who had submitted freedom of information requests noted that vague
clauses in the regulations still hamper the implementation of information disclosure.
The director of the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (污染受害者法律帮助中心),
China University of Political Science and Law professor Wang Canfa, pointed out that the provision in
Article VIII of the Regulations on Open Government Information that “the administrative disclosure of
government information must not threaten national security, public safety, economic security or social
stability" is used by government officials to prevaricate, and has severely compromised government
openness. Other laws are extremely vague with regards to state secrets and trade secrets. "There are
some regulations concerning state secrets in the State Secrets Act, but no relevant laws regarding trade
secrets."
However, improvements in the law come from constant progress made by . After the August 2011
chromium pollution incident in Yunnan, the environmental organization Green Watershed (绿色流域)
requested the disclosure of information from the Kunming central branch of the People's Bank of China,
the Yunnan Banking Regulatory Commission and the Yunnan Environmental Protection Bureau
regarding which banks had loaned money to the polluting company and its associated enterprises. It
also requested information about how the financial regulatory and environmental protection
departments coordinated information regarding this pollution incident. The three departments declined
to release the information. Although Green Watershed failed to get concrete results in their requests for
information, Green Watershed director Yu Xiaogang said: "Through our actions, we discovered the
truth and informed the public about how policies are implemented, what the limits of the public's right
to know are, and which areas still have room for improvement."
C. Public Interest Litigation as Written Into the Civil Procedure Law
The Yunnan Qujing chromium pollution lawsuit was filed jointly by two NGOs, Friends of Nature and
the Chongqing Green Volunteer League, and the Qujing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau,
against two companies in Yunnan Province. The basis of their lawsuit was the “Administrative
Procedure Law” and “Environmental Protection Law .“ Article 6 of the “Environmental Protection
Law’” states that: "All units and individuals shall have the obligation to protect the environment and
the right to report on or file charges against units or individuals that pollute or damage the environment.
Article 2 of the “Administrative Procedure Law”, states: "If a citizen, a legal person or any other
organization believes that their lawful rights and interests have been infringed by a specific
administrative act of an administrative organ or its personnel, they shall have the right to bring a suit
before a people's court in accordance with this Law. "
Based on these two relatively vague provisions, an environmental NGO becomes the claimant in a
public interest environmental lawsuit. "This will play a positive role for the NPC in modifying the
public interest litigation articles in the Civil Procedure Law, and expanding the topics to be deliberated"
commented industry insiders when the above case came to the media’s attention.
As all parties expected, when the “Civil Procedure Law” was amended in 2012, a compelling term
was added, namely, public interest litigation. The relevant article states: "Agencies and relevant
organizations specified by the law can bring a lawsuit before a People’s Court against behavior
harmful to the public interest such as polluting the environment, and harming the legitimate rights and
interests of mass consumers ." This Law made it legal for environmental NGO to file public interest
lawsuits, but the vague definition of the litigating subject (agencies, relevant organizations) and the
strict limitations on the suit’s scope - which clearly only covers two categories of circumstances,
namely, polluting the environment, and harming the interests of mass consumers. Thus just how public
interest lawsuits will be implemented remains to be seen.
Still, getting the term “public interest litigation” signed into the “Civil Procedure Law” is a
legislative milestone worthy of recognition.
II. The Rise in Awareness of Citizen Rights and Responsibilities
Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse pointed out in “Liberalism”: “Great changes are not caused by ideas
alone; but they do not come about without ideas.” The formation of civil society can not be separated
from the cultivation of civic awareness which directly affects whether individual citizens play an active
role, and participate in social action. The core of public advocacy is to create pressure and demands for
changes in public policy, corporate behavior, social structure and social culture by stimulating the
formation of civic awareness. There are many components of civic awareness, but when it comes to
public advocacy, an awareness of citizen rights and responsibilities are the most critical ones.
In China, the long-term impact of the feudal system, the slowness of political reform and reversals in
the democratization process have combined to restrict citizen participation in the political process.
[Editor’s Note: In official Marxist terminology, the term “feudal system” is used to refer to the
imperial system that governed China prior to the 1911 Revolution.] In [today’s China] where [the
authoritarian system has remained largely unchanged] a widespread slave consciousness and a guest
consciousness lacking in a sense of social responsibility has existed for a long time. However, since the
“reform and opening”, the original relationship between the state and society has undergone a gradual
change, with civil society forces steadily rising. In this process, due to economic, legal, political, and
cultural changes and especially the rise of the internet in the 21st century, civil society and citizen
rights awareness have gradually emerged.
In many public advocacy events initiated by citizens and NGOs in recent years, citizen rights
consciousness has played a role that cannot be ignored. Research on the construction of participant
identity by traditional media in public advocacy events points out that in the Xiamen PX Incident in
2007, the factors shaping the identity of those who participated in the "walk" were mainly of three
types: 1) "to defend the space of Xiamen residents"; 2) seeing environmental issues as representing
civilized and progressive values that should be the goal of development; 3) participating in the "walk
"was the right and responsibility of citizens. The Xiamen PX event and two successive events in 2012
– the Shifang protest opposing the molybdenum copper project events, and the opposition to the
sewage project in Qidong, Jiangsu - highlight the transformation from residents to citizens, and their
awareness of, and ability to undertake, collective action to safeguard their own and the public interest.
They are also becoming cases of successful models for promoting the transition from traditional to
modern governance.
The equal education rights movement for the nonresident college entrance examination for migrant
children in Beijing, Shanghai and other places also reflects a strong civil rights orientation and has
become a symbolic and widely discussed public event in recent years.
-------------------------------------
On New Year's Day in 2012, on the cold streets of Beijing, hundreds of volunteers working on behalf of
equal access to education collected supporting signatures in more than 20 locations in the city. On
January 12, more than 100 volunteers submitted a "Proposal for Nonresident Migrant Children to
Take the Local College Entrance Examination.” [Editor’s Note: In China, migrant children are
considered nonresidents in the city they live in and are therefore not allowed to take the college
entrance exam in that city. They can only take the college entrance exam in locality they are
residents in which generally means their hometown.] Volunteers in each district then took turns each
day to submit a letter of invitation to Ministry of Education Yuan Guiren to engage in a dialogue with
the public on February 23. On February 23, more than 300 volunteers sang the national anthem and
read aloud the Education Equality Declaration. In March, when the National People’s Congress (NPC)
and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) held their “two sessions”, the issue of
nonresident college entrance examinations for migrant children became a hot topic. The Minister
and Deputy Minister of Education promised the media they would put forth the principles of a program
within ten months, and introduce the specific implementing measures for local governments by the end
of the year . During the Ching Ming Festival, hundreds of volunteers and children launched an "While
in Beijing, love Beijing” activity, and planted trees in Qinglonghu park together. By June 22, hundreds
of volunteers had distributed thousands of copies of “New Beijinger” flyers on the streets of every
Beijing district .
(Source: “New Citizens”: 2012, Xu Zhiyong, catholic-voice@googlegroups.com 16th
, Jan., 2013)
In addition to the Equal Education Rights movement that took place in Beijing, a Shanghai middle
school student Zhan Haite triggered a public discussion with her online posting. Zhan came to
Shanghai with her parents when she was five years old. She dropped out of school because she could
not participate in the high school entrance examination which was only open to those with a Shanghai
household registration (hukou). In May 2012, seeking to gain the right to take the entrance examination
in Shanghai, she posted a notice on her microblog inviting Beijing and Shanghai residents to join “the
debate” on the topic of the entrance examination. Zhan is representative of 58 million left-behind
children and 27 million migrant children. By the end of 2012, after efforts of countless "Zhan Haites"
advocating for their own rights, 30 provinces and cities had introduced specific criteria for local college
entrance examinations, showing that the equal education rights movement has had a strong policy
impetus.
In the case of prominent public interest, philanthropic micro-charity events such as “Free Lunch” or
“Snapshot’ , Yang Tuan, the chief editor of the "The 2012 Philanthropy Blue Book ,” argues that micropublic
interest activities allows ordinary people to bear the same rights and responsibilities in effecting
social change as the government, scholars and enterprises. [Editor’s Note: The term micro-charity or
micro-public interest refers to citizens participating in charitable or public interest causes and events
through microblogs and other forms of social media. “Free Lunch” case is a recent prominent
example in which a journalist, Deng Fei, started a campaign to feed schoolchildren in impoverished
areas of China by raising money through his microblog. “Snapshot” refers to a microblog started
in April of 2011 by a well-known scholar, Yu Jianrong, calling on the public to "use photographs to
rescue child beggars". This microblogging initiative triggered a chain reaction, and civil society
organizations, volunteer groups, the media and celebrity microblogs all joined in.] Citizens can
express their own appreciation of the concept and of public events through the activities of their choice.
Executive vice president of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, He Daofeng, also believes
that the active participation of citizens in micro-charity reflects the trend toward citizens’ freedom of
association, with donations expressing citizens’ expectations of society and participation in public
affairs.
Public advocacy driven by an awareness of citizen rights and responsibility can to a certain extent
overcome the limitations of the environmental not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) movement. When
opposing pollution from the standpoint of citizen rights and responsibilities, it becomes difficult to use
the “just don’t build it in my backyard” argument, and instead to stand up in support of other cities that
fall victim to polluting projects.
This was demonstrated in the 2012 environmental movements in Shifang, Sichua and Qidong, Jiangsu,
both of which were supported by the public, and netizens and public figures with no direct interests.
III. Opening Up New Channels Of Communication Through Social Media- The Microblog As A
Model
In July 2012, the 'Annual Report on the Development of Social Media in China (2012)', published by
the Social Sciences Academic Press (China), noted that China has in recent years seen a growing
number of users, more diverse applications, and increasing levels of networking and interactivity.
These factors have allowed social media to integrate into society on a much deeper level and thus to
emerge as a new driving force behind the development of Chinese civil society. The report quoted
figures from the China Internet Information Center (CIIC) showing a sharp increase of more than 50
percent in the number of microblogging accounts, from 63.11 million in 2010 to 274 million in June
2012. It observed that the profile of the microblog as a platform for expressing views on and
engaging in political and social issues has risen significantly.
In recent years, many academics have attempted to determine what 'social media' is. Jing Dong and Su
Baohua consider social media to be the medium by which personal information is disseminated in real
time. Zhang Jiang suggests that social media was created in the post 1990s era. It is grounded in
technology and the internet and its defining feature is the use of new methods of disseminating
information with increased interactivity between users. Yu Guoming proposes that traditional media
involves the transmission of information from one to many, while social media allows for the
dissemination of information by many to many. This feature forms, in general, the common basis for all
forms of social media.
As can be seen when defining social media by its mode of transmission and participants, social media
is of a real-time, many-to-many, interactive nature.
As the poster-child of new media, the spontaneity and accessibility of microblogs have lowered the
barriers to netizens' engagement with societal issues. Capitalising on advancements in technology,
netizens are able to post updates in real-time using their computers, tablets, mobile phones and even
certain models of digital cameras; the content of these posts need only a few words or a single
photograph before a touch of the finger transmits them to the rest of the world. On the microblogging
platform, everyone can become a mouthpiece for information.
This many-to-many communication approach has also enabled the microblog to break through the
current pyramidal model of disseminating information which exists in traditional media. In this model,
a 'top-down' approach is adopted. In contrast, social media provides a level platform for the free
exchange of ideas, thereby effectively breaking down stratified social arrangements. In doing so, it
promotes the development of a more equitable society and thereby of civil society.
It is because of these unique characteristics that the microblog became an important public advocacy
platform the moment it appeared in the public domain.
In August 2009, Sina Weibo (China’s most popular brand of microblog) implemented a beta version.
Just six months later, it had surpassed all the other applications in terms of popularity. In 2010, because
of its role in helping netizens keep up-to-date with news from disaster relief operations to the Yihuang
demolition case, that year was christened by the media as the Year of the Microblog. The microblog can
be said to have shown a strong inclination towards being a tool for public advocacy ever since its
gestation. In 2011, from the 'Snapshots' and 'Free Lunch' microblogs set up by China Academy of
Social Science professor Yu Jianrong and Phoenix Weekly reporter Deng Fei respectively, to newsbreaking
exposure of the 'Guo Meimei' scandal and other corruption scandals, the microblog has taken
on an increasingly important role as a public watchdog and driver of social change. More NGOs are
starting their own microblogs and many activities started by microblogging celebrities have become
successful cases of public advocacy.
When talking about the success of his 'Free Lunch' project, Deng Fei pinpoints the microblog as being
vital in facilitating the real-time exchange of information. As opposed to the periodic, rigid reporting of
traditional media, microblogs allow concerned netizens to probe further into and receive information in
real-time, and also to exchange viewpoints with others. The microblog also allows them to stay
engaged with events into their later stages. Deng likens traditional media to the blood vessels of the
body, while microblogs are its irreplaceable capillaries.
“Taking Snapshots to Free Child Beggars” is one case of how public awareness can be aroused and
even used to promote systemic reforms. The movement, which started in 2011, is still going strong and
has expanded to other regions. Other similar cases, such as the 'Snapshots of Traffic Violations', and the
“Snapshots to Monitor Official Cars', and the 'Snapshots of Rivers' started by environmental
organisations, are variations on the “Snapshot” theme.
The 'Taking Snapshots to Free Child Beggars' swept away the misconceptions many had about
kidnapped children and child beggars. The creator of the movement, Yu Jianrong noted that '
'Snapshots' transformed everyone's perspectives and misconceptions of child-beggars and the related
issues. Child beggars being an everyday occurrence, everyone thought that the act was legal, but
through this movement they have grown to realize that it is not, and that everyone has the power to
rescue these children. Increasing this awareness has been one of the greatest achievements of this
movement.
At that time, the movement ignited a huge debate on how best to resolve the problem of child beggars.
At the two sessions of the NPC and CPPCC in 2011, many representatives pushed for the introduction
of legislation to prohibit all forms of child-begging. Representatives, such as Ma Xingtian and Fang Yi
among many others, called for introducing amendments and improvements to the 'Law on the
Protection of Minors' and the 'Child Welfare Act' that would not only have the government prohibit
child begging, but also go one step further by assuming responsibility for those children and their
welfare.
Besides the initiatives taken by celebrities, for some NGOs whose focus is on changing societal
perceptions the power of the microblog in driving such changes is something not to be overlooked. For
example, the official microblog of the Women’s Media Monitoring Network, “Women’s Voices” is very
active at the moment, with about 1.4 million followers and hundreds of shared postings. But because of
its narrow choice of discussion topics, 'Women’s Voices' saw only a gradual increase in followers from
about 1000 at its initial registration in June 2010 until the start of 2012. It was only in June 2012, when
news of the sexual harassment of a female on the Shanghai metro system emerged that “Women’s
Voices” began to take the lead in facilitating discussion among netizens. Because of the interest in
controversial topics, the emergence of new perspectives, and the reblogging by big names in
microblogging such as Li Kaifu, Xue Manzi, Zuo Xiao Zu Zhou and other celebrities, 'Women’s
Voices” saw a rapid rise in its followers. In the latter half of the year, as a result of organizing 'Going
Bald for Education', tracking the 'Li Yang Jia' expose, initiating the 'Ten Thousand Signatures for
Prevention of Domestic Violence Legislation' and various other activities, their followers continued to
rise rapidly in number to the current level of about 14,000 followers. (taken from Feb 2013 statistics)
As a social media tool, the possibility of spreading information on Weibo has a significant positive
effect on public advocacy. But as online media it also has its special characteristics and limitations that
should not be ignored. With public advocacy, one needs to pay attention to advocacy mechanisms or
avoid their defects.
First of all, advocacy on Weibo depends on the power of celebrities. Traditional media has often
benefited from celebrity charm and microblogs do so even more. Celebrity attention and participation
can instantly lead to exposure and spreading of certain incidents. For example the editor of the
microblog “Feminist Voices” (女权之声), Ms. Xiong Jing noted that after its criticism of inappropriate
comments on sexual harassment on the Shanghai’s metro line 2 was picked up by the celebrity, Li
Kaifu, it was reposted more than 800 times that day. Overall the influence of Weibo is mainly decided
by the attention and participation of opinion leaders. This means that Weibo is still a platform
dependent on those in power, and voices of advocacy can be effectively transmitted only when it is
reposted by influential opinion leaders.
Second, advocacy through microblogs still requires dissemination through traditional media.
The “agenda setting” theory in communication studies states that traditional media often cannot dictate
people’s opinion on certain topics, but by providing information and setting the agenda, it can
effectively influence which topics people discuss and in which order. In other words media cannot
influence how people think, but what people think about. In China’s reality today traditional media is
still a strong force shaping the public agenda. Since the emergence of social media, given its
interactivity and immediacy, many issues raised on microblogs have successfully shaped the media
agenda and thereby the public agenda. Ulimately, however, the way media reports on views and
information on microblogs still influences the advocacy agenda. In the “Snapshot” case, the
participation of NGOs active on weibo – for example, the One Foundation which was among the first
to express support for these activities - was ignored by traditional media news reports.
Third, expressing opinions on weibo could dispel the power of action in reality.
“If you are looking at your computer screen right now, you’re probably not engaging in revolution. The
three hundred million Chinese microbloggers could be seen as the biggest restraint to revolution
worldwide.” Sarah Nouwen, lecturer at the Cambridge University Law School says that for many
people to write about politics on Twitter seems to be a goal in itself – after expressing their opinion,
microbloggers may not even worry about the state of affairs in Ugangda any more. This is what is
called “slacktivism” – supporting a goal by an indolent means.
LüPin, head of the Women's Media Monitoring Network (妇女传媒监测网络) also points out that the
internet can create an illusion and be a substitute for action. Many people think, to talk on the internet
and post information is activism. Instead she is of the opinion that: "Activism is something physical
and requires the body to be present. Only if people can see each other can one talk of action and social
engagement. The internet can provide a platform for spreading information, but this itself is not social
action."
Fourth, the negative effects of the internet has side effects for microblog advocacy.
In the age of weibo when everybody has become media, there is a great fragmentation of information.
Those who participate in the advocacy agenda have a sense of righteousness, yet the critical abilities of
netizens vary widely and it is very difficult to monitor microblogs. For these reasons, a great deal of
false information can be found on weibo. One example is the “Lu Meimei scandal” that for a while
became as famous as the the “Guo Meimei scandal” in 2011. Later it was shown to be just a normal
charity project and the lawyer Qian Weiqing even published a clarification stating that “there is
sufficient evidence that the rumors about Ms. Lu Junqing are false. Sometimes rumors can take the
media hostage if there is no level playing field. The media as well as the public didn’t really seek the
truth and repeatedly fabricated a case of how charity was abused for personal gain.”
In another example, some “Snapshot” actions have led to controversies over the public’s right to
information and the privacy rights of the people involved. During the actions to save child beggar, the
parents have wrongly been considered as human traffickers, which forced them to take part in a DNA
test in order to prove their innocence. During the “Snapshots to Save the Unmarried”, some people also
secretly took pictures of the suspects and put them on the internet without authorization, thereby
violating their privacy rights.
According to China's laws, the right to information and privacy still lack clear independent status.
Therefore, when pictures are used by social media for advocacy purposes, both rights can be in conflict.
Finding a way to resolve the conflict between the right to information and the right to privacy is
therefore a real problem for public advocacy activities.
IV. Public Advocacy Through Mainstream Channels
Even though social media has completely changed the overall situation in recent years, China’s current
reality is that traditional media and other mainstream communication channels still influence the public
agenda. As mentioned earlier, traditional media still plays a major role in setting the public agenda in
China. As shown in the picture below, netizens are individual, separate entities and the information
exchanged among them usually remains within relatively small communities. The influence of normal
netizens is confined to a small circle of acquaintances and friends. The topics commented on or posted
by opinion leaders with tens of thousands of followers can influence many more people in media can
influence the public. Traditional media can easily choose topics from microblogs, put together the
fragmented information from microblogs and set the agenda of most opinion leaders, average netizens
and the public as a whole.
This shows that traditional mainstream media is paying attention to public advocacy, which means that
public mobilization has become a decisive factor influencing political and economic decision makers.
For the success of important cases such as “Free Lunch”, “Snapshot” or issues such as hepatitis B or
HIV, coverage by mainstream media is important. Furthermore, some mainstream media companies are
themselves socially conscious and besides providing a channel for public advocacy, have themselves
engaged in public advocacy (see Chapter 4 of this report). Moreover the growing awareness among
NGOs and individuals of the usefulness of mainstream advocacy channels has further contributed to the
development of public advocacy.
The civic practitioner and independent writer Ms. Kou Yanding has devoted herself to promoting rules
of debate (e.g. Robert’s Rules of Order) in China. For both observers and practitioners it is worthwhile
drawing lessons from her experience in expanding advocacy channels within mainstream media.
Case Study: Interview with Kou Yanding: Practisable Democracy-- How To Carry Out
Mainstream Dissemination
This book records the process of implementing a set of Western, elite rules (Roberts' Rules of Order) in
rural Anhui, introduces these rules to the public, and explains how they can be applied in everyday life.
This book received a very positive critical reception, winning a number of awards including the 2012
Southern Festival of Reading's “most popular” award, and became one of the most popular works on
the dissemination of civil society concepts and practices.
Prior to its release in April of 2012, my book received early attention through Duku. Duku, with 30,000
readers who are interested in mainstream culture, serialized a large portion of the book over the course
of 2011 and 2012. This certainly attracted the attention of the public, although it is difficult to assess
the affect on book sales.
After it was published, the first wave of promotion was through mainstream channels, and generally
consisted of media reports and lectures. The second wave was through specialized magazines, which
wrote in-depth pieces on the book, and through follow-up reports from CCTV and other stations, which
filmed the site of the experiment. These were all organized by the publisher, and were crafted to appeal
to media sensibilities.
Another channel was through the internet, on websites like Weibo. At first I was pretty passive about
this sort of promotion, but slowly I realized its importance; in September and October of 2012 I began
urging my publisher to utilize Weibo, and I also began to use social media resources (including Douban)
to read the comments and reviews of readers with whom I was unfamiliar. From August, when the book
received an award at the Southern Festival of Reading, through November, the book received more
than 20 nominations.
There were also interesting commercial developments. In 2012, an agent from Apple contacted us
about producing a digital book within their system, which is probably online by now. In January of
2013, we also made an agreement with Xinlang to sell an electronic copy of the book. We also found
out that people in Hong Kong were interested in the book, and several bookstores in Hong Kong were
able to sell it. My other two books, Everything Begins from Reform and Action Changes Survival also
began to utilize these two channels of promotion-- through the publisher and through social media. I
recently traveled to Chengdu, and received four invitations, two of which were from NGOs. When I
announced on Weibo that I was traveling to Guangzhou, I received two responses offering to organize
gatherings, which I think is a pretty interesting expression of the importance of Weibo for effective
promotion.
This successful promotion also led to the application of Roberts' Rules of Order among citizens. A
private middle school adopted them, and an entrepreneur study group also read the book in order to
encourage experimentation in entrepreneurs' self-governance. After a school in Beijing was closed
down, parents and teachers were very upset. Finally, one parent, who had read the book, used the rules
to hold a meeting, and they were able to reach an agreement. This parent was an entrepreneur, and he
later adopted the rules for his company's board meetings.
This book is for 1) those who frequently consider democratic issues, such as those working in academia,
art and culture, or the media; 2) NGOs; 3) the public. The value, and charm, of Roberts' Rules of Order
are that they are able to suit a variety of needs. Some people focus on democracy, others on the
effectiveness of the tools.
In general, NGOs' topics of focus all relate to crucial societal needs such as education, environment,
labor, and AIDS, but their methods of dissemination are often less than ideal. The effectiveness of
mainstream channels to promote NGO works should be a signal, and a reminder, to NGO practitioners.
(Compiled based on interviews with Kou Yanding)
Chapter Three NGO Advocacy
Chapter 2 NGO Advocacy
I. NGO Responses to Public Advocacy Needs
As stated in the introduction, the current social context and various factors have formed a
mainstreaming trend for NGOs seeking cooperation with the government and business sector to
provide efficient, transparent, professional and innovative social services for the public. However, with
the expansion of societal spaces and the rapid overall development of civil society advocacy, NGOs
have begun to pay more attention to the role and value of advocacy. Using the concept of civil rights,
NGOs and NGO networks are defining their missions to use advocacy to influence government policy,
change enterprise codes of conduct and raise public awareness. In public events over the past few years,
these organizations and networks have become key actors using public advocacy to raise the profile of
various social agendas. Even though these phenomena are not part of the mainstream of NGO
development, their efforts cannot be ignored.
For quite some time, there have been problems with some NGOs being divorced from communities,
unable to respond effectively to society’s needs. Nominally, they stand for the interests of the public
and vulnerable groups, but have no way to perform their role of representing the popular will, and
instead become marginalized themselves. This problem is partly a result of constraints on their
legitimacy, their organizational orientation and other factors. Many organizations have positioned
themselves as links between the people and the government. They see themselves in a supplemental
role as “friends”, “partners”, “advisors”, and “helpers” to the government. This kind of positioning is
common in the NGO sector. NGOs usually carry out their work through projects that combine human
resources, a work plan and outcomes into a project framework. This “project” system, however,
suppresses NGO’s social functions and weakens their advocacy role. As a result, a general
organizational survival strategy with Chinese characteristics is formed. In particular, in this internet and
social media age, even as the work of individual citizens engaged in public interest and rightsprotection
struggles is making significant advances, NGO voices are not being heard, leading some
NGOs to reflect critically on their role.
Social movements involving multiple actors, such as the public and NGOs, is a strategic method for
responding to social issues and pushing for reforms. It requires systematic concepts and an ideological
base to persuade the participants and sustain their actions. Due to the above constraints, there is still a
gap between the current performance of NGOs and what social movements require of NGOs.
Civil society has responded to this situation in various ways. First, some NGO networks set up
specifically to engage in public advocacy, and more advocacy-oriented NGOs, have emerged to address
the lack of advocacy channels. Their public advocacy and social mobilization shows a stronger
orientation towards public and policy issues. They have made efforts to push forward a social agenda
using pressure and even confrontation. These new actors tend to have a much clearer sense of
independence and public advocacy mission within the third sector.
Secondly, some advocacy NGOs that have been using conventional, low-profile methods for some time
have now begun to actively respond to social issues and events in the public eye. For example, the
former Beijing Women’s Legal Aid Center (北京妇女法律中心) (recently renamed the Beijing
Zhongze Women’s Legal Consulting Service Center (现北京众泽妇女法律咨询服务中心)) has been
working for many years on women’s rights protection. They have handled many legal cases and public
interest lawsuits concerning women’s rights and interests. One example is the May 2009 Deng Yujiao
case which attracted a great deal of attention from the public and media. Despite the risks involved, the
Center got involved in the case, jointly organizing a “Women’s Rights and Dignity Protection Legal
Seminar” together with the Beijing Yirenping Center (北京益仁平中心). In addition, they also started
an online “Women Support Group” for Deng’s case and declared openly that they would provide moral
and legal aid to her. This involvement in a public issue departed from Zhongzhe’s traditional, lowprofile
legal rights protection model in responding to a very public event. Another example is the
Beijing Maple Women’s Psychological Counseling Center, an organization with more than 20 years
experience. Their intervention in the Li Yang domestic violence case is another recent example of a
NGO responding to a public issue. [Editor’s Note: Li Yang, the founder of the Crazy English Schools,
was recently found guilty by a Chinese court of abusing his American-born wife and ordered to pay
compensation.]
There are also some established service organizations that have changed direction to engage in more
public advocacy. For instance, Dongzhen Human Rights Education Center (东珍人权教育中心) used
to work with AIDS orphans in Henan Province. Now, it works on human rights advocacy in public
health issues including HIV/AIDS. The transformation of the Media Monitor for Women
(妇女传媒监测网络) and Anti-Domestic Violence (反家暴网络) (Beijing Fanbao) networks also
reflects the development of public advocacy in NGOs. In the field of environment preservation, NGOs
and NGO alliances have emerged to monitor corporate behavior. They advocate on themes related to
air/water pollution prevention and management, waste sorting and incineration reduction and green
credit. [Editor’s Note: Green credit seeks to change corporate behavior by getting bank lenders to
pay closer attention to the environmental records of their corporate clients.] An example is the Green
Choice Alliance (GCA, 色选择联盟) which focuses on corporate supply chain management. Through a
professional division of labor among member organizations, GCA chooses to encourage polluting
industries to undertake changes on a large-scale instead of a case-by-case basis. NGOs and NGO
alliances in other fields also have good advocacy practices worth sharing. In the current environment of
a diversifying civil society, the advocacy function of non-governmental actors is developing rapidly
and catching up with their social service functions.
II. Support Networks for NGO Advocacy and the Creation of Public Spaces
The emergence and development of public advocacy in NGOs reflects the ecological changes in the
field. Evidence of the changes can be found in support networks focused on promoting advocacy
awareness and actions among NGOs and NGOs working on the creation of public spaces. Typical
examples of the former are Global Call for Action Against Poverty (GCAP) China and the China
Environmental Advocacy Network (EAN-CN). Examples of the latter are Yiyuangongshe and the Antidiscrimination
Salon and workshops organized by Dongzhen Human Rights Education Center.
The advocacy support networks mainly adopt public advocacy strategies and methods, using the
discourse of rights and advocacy and striving to strengthen NGO advocacy awareness and capacity on
specific topics. Regardless of whether they are targeting those in positions of power (e.g. powerful
governments or corporations) or whether they are raising public awareness, their actions all have
features of rights-based advocacy, such as promoting open government information, the public’s right
to information, participation in decision-making process, gender equity and the rights of vulnerable
groups.
Case study: Global Call for Action Against Poverty(GCAP) China
GCAP China (www.gcap-china.cn/index.html) was established in September 2005 as a NGO
interdisciplinary network committed to the promotion of the work of non-governmental actors on
poverty elimination in China. Their partners are working in various fields like rural development, labor,
education, the disabled, environmental protection, and health. By building up NGO advocacy capacity
and coordinating collaborative actions in poverty reduction, GCAP China promotes the participation of
NGOs and the public in eliminating structural poverty and injustice.
Since 2006, GCAP China has started to organize NGO capacity building activities, which including
summarizing domestic NGO advocacy cases, holding salons on development and advocacy, organizing
workshops around different topics to strengthen the advocacy capacity of NGOs and maintaining
online communication platforms such as the Advocacy Online Study email listserve. GCAP China has
also collaborated with NGO partners and published practical pamphlets such as the Advocacy Manual
for Public Interest Organizations as well as summaries of domestic advocacy strategies.
Besides capacity building, GCAP China works on motivating NGOs in various fields to make joint
declarations on domestic and international poverty reduction topics. In 2007, during the mid-term
evaluation of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), GCAP China united many NGOs and
released a Nongovernmental Report on China’s Implementation of MDGs as well as organizing many
other activities in order to motivate Chinese civil society organizations to participate in this important
international development agenda. In addition, GCAP China also pays attention to domestic topics. It
has organized several NGOs in researching and writing several policy advocacy reports on migrant
worker issues.
(Sources: Information from the internet, with additional information provided by Wang Man of GCAP
China)
Case Study: Environmental Advocacy Network in China (EAN-CN)
The China Environmental Advocacy Network (EAN-CN) got its start with the September 2011
publication of the China Environmental Protection Advocacy Manual by the environmental NGO,
Xiamen Greencross Association The book introduced the basics, preparation, methodology, strategy,
cooperation, interaction and legal safeguard needed for environment protection advocacy. It provided
reference materials on the methods and strategies environmental NGOs could use to engage in
advocacy and effective communication with stakeholders within China’s legal framework. Because of
its emphasis on participation and operations, the book was highly praised. In October 2011, the Xiamen
Greencross Association created a supplementary online resource, the Environmental Advocacy
Network in China (www.eac- cn.org), for those interested in downloading the manual as well as other
information.
In June 2012, the Xiamen Greencross Association proposed establishing the China Environmental
Advocacy Network. The first group of founding organizations and members included 22 environment
organizations throughout China. A steering committee for the network was elected and the secretariat
was based in the Xiamen Greencross Association.
EAN-CN is a collaborative platform for environment NGOs that seeks to achieve four objectives: 1)
information and resource sharing; 2) environmental advocacy capacity building; 3) carrying out lawbased
advocacy actions; 4) effective promotion of environmental policy and legislation. EAN-CN
strives to carry out specialized capacity building for environmental NGOs engaged in advocacy actions
in order to familiarize them with law-based environmental advocacy methods and strengthen their
capacity to carry out law-based advocacy. The network is currently open to domestic grass-root
environment NGOs and international NGOs in China. It provides small grants for members. It also has
plans to take members on study tours to Hong Kong and Taiwan to learn from their experiences as well
as sharing experiences and outcomes of distinctive approaches used by peer practitioners.
(Source: www.eac- cn.org)
In addition to the above two networks that provide capacity building for advocacy organizations, the
Nanjing NGO, Justice for All (天下公), established a “Civil Society Small Grants Program” for
grassroots advocacy NGOs in 2011. The aim of the program is to encourage NGOs working on
disability, women, HIV/AIDS and other related topics to “adopt innovative social activities that will
rapidly improve the social impact of grassroots organizations”.
In addition, NGOs specializing in public advocacy and the creation of public spaces, such as Dongzhen
Human Rights Education Center and Yiyuangongshe are emerging.
Case study: Human Rights Advocacy and Support – Dongzhen Human Rights Education Center
In 2008, Dongzhen Human Rights Education Center (hereinafter, “Dongzhen”), together with the Asia
Legal Resource Center, initiated an International Convention for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Workshop”. The Workshop introduced human rights basics, approaches for narrowing the gap between
the current domestic rights protection system and international human rights standards, opportunities
for networking and learning, and a small grants program for education projects. Dongzhen has also
joined in a public interest law network in order to improve communication between lawyers and NGOs
and gain access to professional legal consulting and assistance.
In December 2009, Dongzhen initiated an “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Salon” to provide
people a platform to discuss social issues such as women, minorities, people living with HIV, the
disabled, migrant labor, LGBT rights, and equal access to education. The Salon used a rights
perspective to examine these issues and invited scholars, lawyers, NGO practitioners and individuals
engaged in public advocacy actions to share their insights with the participants. In addition to
organizing a systematic and in-depth discussion of social issues, Dongzhen also used the Salon to share
international experiences in the field and introduce human rights concepts and mechanisms. More
recently, it organized a series on the topic of anti-discrimination. Instead of using salons and workshops
to only analyze the culture that breeds discrimination and the legal protections available, Dongzhen
also makes the topic action-oriented. It leads participants to explore different approaches and strategies
to fight discrimination and encourages practitioners to carry out effective actions using diverse tools.
By the end of February 2013, Dongzhen had held 48 such salon sessions.
In February 2011, Dongzhen established the Dongzhen Book Club, seeking to create a space for people
and organizations interested in the public interest. The book club has collected more than 1,000
Chinese and English books on the public interest, social issues and social movements. The club space
can be rented to organizations for meetings and events. It has been used by the LGBT organization,
Beijing Health Education Institute’s Queer College, workshops organized by women’s rights volunteers,
Handicap International’s anti-discrimination exhibition for the blind, and various fundraising activities.
Dongzhen also shares the office space with organizations like the Canada Fund, the Gender and Health
Education Institute and other domestic and international organizations. Through public relations work
of these organizations, more opportunities for sharing and communication among NGOs have been
created. All these activities have created a public space for discussions and about social issues in order
to promote action, and provide support for advocacy.
(Interview with Li Dan, Executive Director of Dongzhen)
Similarly, Yiyuangongshe was established for the purpose of providing activity space for marginalized
people. As an open space for public services, Yiyuangongshe has developed and supported a wide
range of activities, promoting the collection and sharing of ideas and experiences in a variety of civil
society sectors.
Case Study: Creation public space, Yiyuangongshe
In July 2011, Yiyuangongshe opened a public space in Beijing for civil society enlightenment and
social motivation. In the short time that has passed, Yiyuangongshe has organized a range of activities
including a color projection room on topics such as civil rights, civil society and social development;
monthly discussions on development, a women’s action forum, an advocacy salon, a youth and gender
reading party on youth development and training, and a Little Mud House Youth Reading Party
emphasizing humanistic concerns, as well as capacity building trainings and free space for NGOs who
lack resources. In its short life, Yiyuangongshe has developed some recognized public activities in the
field of civil society.
The idea for Yiyuangongshe came from from Han Hongmei, an NGO practitioner, Qu Ping, a social
work expert, and Lv Pin, an expert on gender. At the very beginning, it was just an idea to provide
activity space for female domestic workers. Han’s China WTO Network and Lv’s Women’s Media
Monitoring Network jointly rented an office and meeting room for the activities. Because the workers
can only come on weekends, Yiyuangongshe uses the space during the week for a variety of public
activities and makes it available for other activities.
Many people think that it is might be sensitive to have public spaces. Yiyuangongshe often hold
lectures and salons about rights and advocacy. Han Hongmei believes that public spaces are extremely
scarce in China today. Many people have lost their ability to participate in public events as individuals.
Public spaces encourage people to get involved in discussions on public issues, rather than focusing
only on their own lives. For a society which has few channels for public participation, public spaces are
not so much a place for the opposition to gather, but rather a place for people to come together to
improve society.
In today’s society where mainstream ideas and opinions tend to dominate discussions, the public space
that Yiyuangongshe has created for marginalized groups
provides a valuable service.
III. The Emergence and Growth of Advocacy-oriented NGOs
China Development Brief’s 2006 Special Report on NGO Advocacy in China showed that while
advocacy was a part of the work of many of the organizations interviewed, it was not part of their core
organizational mission. At the time, cases like the Nu River anti-dam movement which involved
multiple actors, such as the media, NGOs and scholars, were rare. NGOs found it hard to participate in
and have an impact on public events. In recent years, that situation has changed. The number of
organizations that identify themselves as carrying out “advocacy” or “public advocacy” in the public
interest sector is growing. Their involvement in social issues tends to be more direct and open. As a
result, we are seeing the emergence of NGOs whose work revolves around advocacy and who use
public attention to promote causes.
An example is Yirenping which has offices in Beijing (Yirenping, 益仁平), Zhengzhou (Yirenping,
亿人平), Nanjing (Justice for All, 天下公) and Shenzhen (the Equity and Justice Initiative, 衡平) that
work on anti-discrimination and equal employment on behalf of people with Hepatitis B and
HIV/AIDS. Beijing Yirenping was established in December 2006. Its mission is advocacy aimed at
eliminating discrimination. It assists people who are discriminated against in protecting their rights.
This includes people with Hepatitis B and HIV, people who are disabled, have diabetes or suffer from
depression, the colorblind and other marginalized and vulnerable groups. The majority of their cases
have led to influential lawsuits that have attracted a significant amount of attention from the public.
Besides lawsuits, Beijing Yirenping also participates in drawing up and amending laws and regulations.
They were actively involved in providing aid to victims in the scandals over milk powder and porcelain
teeth, and other public health events. As a membership organization that first worked with hepatitis B
carriers, Beijing Yirenping has evolved into an organization that works for the public interest.
Yirenping (Zhenzhou), Justice for All (Nanjing), Equity and Justice Initiative (Shenzhen) are all rightsprotection
NGOs that help vulnerable groups. They maintain a close relationship with the Beijing
Yirenping office in the areas of human resources, projects and contact networks. While the four NGOs
collaborate with one another operationally, they are also relatively independent.
These four NGOs share a common feature: a grassroots (independent) standpoint. This standpoint does
not mean a rejection of professional standards. On the contrary, in order to conduct effective advocacy,
they attach a great deal of importance to building professional resources and capacity on various topics,
and developing innovative public advocacy methods. In the field of gender, the transformation of the
Women's Media Monitoring Network (WMMN, 妇女传媒监测网络) is one example of the
development of NGO public advocacy. WMMN now works through various projects such as its
publication, Women’s Voices (女声报), using social media extensively for public dissemination. It is
gradually expanding its focus from gender issues to civil society spaces and the overall development of
the civil society.
Case Study: The transformation of Women's Media Monitoring Network
In the 1990s, as the first action-oriented NGO focusing on media and gender, the WMMN and its
members monitored and critiqued reports in the mass media on women and gender topics. In
September 2009, the network independently established a monthly feminist review of current events the
Women Voices Newsletter. The Newsletter shows that WMMN has moved beyond elite feminist
academic circles to engage the mainstream public. It is now known for providing information,
exclusive editorials and critical social perspectives which has attracted thousands of readers and makes
it the most influential alternative gender and feminism media platform in China. In 2010, WMMN
entered the world of social media, establishing several stable broadcasting sites. @womenwatch is an
active and appealing feminist information platform account on Sina’s microblog. It connects a number
of loyal readers and alliances. It has initiated, participated in and facilitated some influential advocacy
actions on gender equity, including some performance art activities. WMMN has developed several
public advocacy platforms, including Women’s Voices Network, the Gender and Development Network,
the publication, Women Voices, Gender Advocacy in Colleges and Universities project and several
social media accounts.
(Source: Sources on the Internet)
In addition, some older advocacy networks have gradually moved toward public advocacy in the
process of responding to social issues. The Anti-Domestic Violence Network (ADVN, 反家暴网络)
(the former China Law Society’s Anti-Domestic Violence Network established in 2000) is the first
national network focused on domestic violence against women. A number of legislative proposals have
been made over the years through its research, advocacy, training and services, its actions raising
awareness of gender equality, and its promotion of relevant legal system reforms. In November 2012,
ADVN initiated and participated in a “10,000 Signatures Campaign for Open Information about AntiDomestic
Violence Legislation”. It also played important roles in public events, including the Li Yang
domestic violence case in 2011 and “the death sentence case of the battered women, Li Yan who killed
her husband”.
IV. NGO Advocacy Alliances Become a Reality
Collaboration on advocacy among NGOs has become a common strategy. However, these alliances
take different forms. Alliances that carry out a professional division of labor and avoid homogeneity
tend to produce more in-depth cooperation and greater space for collaboration. A variety of NGO
advocacy networks have been exploring how to deepen cooperation and strengthen their effectiveness.
The Green Choice Alliance (GCA, 绿色选择联盟) initiated by several environment NGOs stands out
for its efforts.
Case study: The Green Choice Alliance Using Advocacy to Change the Behavior of Enterprises
and their Suppliers
In March 2007, the Institute of Public Environmental Affairs (IPE, 公众环境研究中心) formed a
coalition with 21 other environmental organizations. Together, they founded GCA. Based on water and
air pollution data developed and dynamically updated by IPE, the Green Choice supply chain
management system has been developed as a systematic solution. The environmental NGOs conduct
independent research monitoring the environment behavior of Chinese suppliers for large purchasers
(brand name companies) using a transparent and participatory approach. They then encourage the
suppliers to make improvements in their behavior and publicize their information. In addition, they also
pressure the purchasers to identify suppliers with environmental violations so as to put pressure on the
supply chain to address pollution problems.
GCA carries out continual monitoring, research and exposés of cases of heavy metal pollution in the
information technology and textile industries. It communicates and interacts with polluting enterprises
and finally makes outstanding achievements. One of its most successful cases was its three reports on
pollution and labor issues in Apple’s supply chain. The report changed the supplier’s attitude from
confrontation and denial to communication and cooperation. The supplier eventually adopted the a
Third Party Verification under the supervision of NGOs which led to the supplier improving its
environmental compliance issues.
As of Jan 23, 2013, the IPE database has collected a total of 117,057 enterprise monitoring records
from Environmental Protection Bureaus throughout China. Since GCA’s founding, its actions have
forced 800 enterprises in violation of environmental laws and regulations to respond and either provide
an explanation or carry out reforms and release their environmental records to the public.
GCA’s advocacy alliance relies on a division of labor. Its members have grown to include 46 NGOs
from 20 provinces and autonomous regions throughout China. It has developed a working model based
on collaborative decision-making and a clear labor division to guarantee its credibility and
effectiveness.
In CGA’s early stages, member NGOs mainly engaged in advocacy by sending jointly-signed letters.
From there, some members entered into more substantive forms of cooperation. For instance, IPE,
Green Beagle Environment Institute’s Nature University, Friends of Nature, Environment of Friends,
Nanjing Green Stone Environmental Action Network, Chongqing Liangjiang Voluntary Service Center
and Green Hunan jointly applied for funding from the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE).
They cooperated using an open and transparent set of procedures to make decisions on equitably
distributing and using resources. Their cooperation also takes advantage of the different professional
competences of each organization. IPE is mainly responsible for research, report writing and
communicating with enterprises; Green Beagle Environment Institute works on media and public
outreach; Friends of Nature’s local chapters are in charge of on-site investigation of pollution sources
and customer motivation; and Environment of Friends deals with internal communication and
coordination within the CGA network. Other locally-based NGOs assist in investigating pollution
sources and serve as the local contact and promoter for IPE when carrying out investigations in local
communities. Their reports are signed and released with the core participating NGOs. Moreover, in
order to guarantee CGA’s credibility and to avoid individual CGA members acting on their own, the
alliance members must all be in consensus when confirming the enterprise verification reports and
deciding whether to remove an enterprise’s pollution record.
(Source: Interview with Wang Jingjing)
V. NGO Public Advocacy Displays a Stronger Public and Policy Orientation
In the past, traditional NGO advocacy was highly circumscribed. Either it lacked policy channels and
professional capacity, and mainly revolved around topics that could be introduced through public
education. Or, it relied on policy channels to provide advice, but lacked participation from the public.
In the past few years, with the growing space and channels for public advocacy, people’s awareness of
their rights has become widespread. Correspondingly, advocacy by NGOs has begun to show a stronger
orientation toward the public and policy, and gradually connecting the public and government. The “I
Will Test the Air Quality for the Homeland” campaign initiated by the Green Beagle Environment
Institute was a successful environmental action in this regard.
Case study: I Will Test the Air Quality for the Homeland
In October 2011, after going through serious haze in Beijing, the real-time measurement of air quality
by the US embassy ignited a public discussion on the microblogs about the air pollutant PM2.5. People
from all walks of life, from business and opinion leaders and celebrities to the general public, were
discussing the air in Beijing through their microblogs. The substantial difference between the US
embassy air quality reading and that of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau was due to PM2.5
not being included in the latter’s AAQS (ambient air quality standard) indicators at the time. As a result,
voluntary air testing activities led by NGOs and individuals spread in big cities around the country. Of
these activities, the “I Will Test the Air Quality for the Homeland” campaign initiated by the Green
Beagle Environment Institute was one of the more influential.
Green Beagle started advocating for independent non-governmental air quality testing from April 2009.
In April 2011, they began to organize volunteers to monitor, test and release information about PM2.5
readings. Most of the volunteers were “white-collar” workers working together with college students,
retirees and even school children. On December 15, 2011, the activity was formally dubbed the “I
Will Test the Air Quality for the Homeland”. Feng Yongfeng, the founder of Green Beagle, raised funds
for PM2.5 detectors through his microblog and encouraged more people and environmental NGOs in
cities to participate in the action. In the end, 20 cities participated, among them Beijing, Shanghai,
Tianjin, Chongqing, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Wenzhou, Shenzhen and Changsha. Netizens put up
photos showing the air quality in their cities on microblogs. Environmental organizations in different
parts of the country such as Green Hunan, the Wuhan chapter of Friends of Nature, and Bike
Guangzhou, participated.
These grassroots actions forced the government to issue relevant government standards. On November
17, 2011, Ministry of Environmental Protection issued a second draft of its Ambient Air Quality
Standard for public comment and included PM2.5 in its regular air quality indicators. Six
environmental NGOs led by Green Beagle and the media outlet, Southern Weekly, came together to
make seven recommendations to conduct formal PM2.5 readings for the 2013 – 2015 period. In March
2012, the State Council approved the revised Ambient Air Quality Standard and added PM2.5 into the
indicators which would be implemented in stages. In December 2012, the Minister of Environmental
Protection, Mr. Zhou Shengxian announced the implementation of the Ambient Air Quality Standard
ahead of schedule. Since 2012, PM2.5 and ozone monitoring has begun in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, key
areas in the Yangtze River and Zhujiang River delta regions, directly-controlled municipalities and
capital cities.
(Source: Project and media reports)
“I Will Test the Air Quality for the Homeland” utilized the power of social media, combining public
actions and effective fundraising with a high degree of public participation while also connecting with
celebrities and opinion leaders. All these factors pushed the action to go beyond the traditional NGO
project handling methods and their small target groups. It directed public attention to the issue and
allowed people from different walks of life to express their ideas through comments on microblogs,
postings, donations and real-time testing. It brought together different social forces and ultimately
pressured the government to respond to public demands for open information and issue policy
standards on air monitoring, which set the foundation for future pollution abatement efforts.
In addition to a growing number of advocacy NGOs using public advocacy, some scholars and experts
who used to work through official (in-system) channels to provide suggestions and recommendations to
the government, have also begun paying attention to civil society approaches to accelerate policy
changes through social media and public opinion. One outstanding example is that of Dr. Xie Yan, an
associate researcher from the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Zoology, who put forward
legislation to protect nature reserves.
Case study: After a Ten-Year Deadlock over Nature Reserve Legislation, a Scholar Adopts a
Grassroots Approach to Public Advocacy
Over the past decade, Xie Yan has attended dozens of discussions on legislative drafts regarding nature
reserves and protected areas organized by Environment and Natural Resource Committee of the
National People's Congress (NPC). She has for a long time been committed to promoting stronger
legislation. These discussions have been ongoing among scholars and experts in related sectors for
years, yet never involved the public’s participation. As someone who has for a long time insisted on
using her status as a scholar to lobby quietly and in a professional manner for changes, Xie was unable
to break the deadlock.
On Dec 31, 2011, the Natural Heritage Protection Law (draft) was included in the agenda of the
meeting of the NPC Standing Committee’s Environment and Natural Resource Committee. Xie and
other experts thought that the Act only required urgent modification of two related regulations which
were wholly inadequate in their coverage, operating mechanism and monitoring system. She believed
that what China really needed was a law that covered everything in the field of protected areas.
In February 2012, Xie appealed to the public, stating “since the lobbying has failed, I’ve decide to take
the grassroots approach! We’ve arrived today at the final moment (just before the 2012 session of the
NPC) and I will call for changes through the internet and the media!” She hoped to galvanize public
support to postpone the discussion over the Natural Heritage Protection Law for one more year, and
called on the government to organize experts within that year to develop a law that would really
address the main problems in existing natural reserve management and provide wide coverage and
long-term protection.
By April, 2012, Xie had organized more than 80 experts from the fields of ecology, law, policy research,
civil society construction, and communications. The experts set up a “Nature Protection Legislative
Research Team”. After a year’s effort, the Team drafted their own version of a Protected Areas Law
(draft). Just before the opening of the NPC and the Chinese Political Consultative Conference
(NPC&CPPCC) in March of 2013, Xie successively held two discussion sessions for CPPCC members
and NPC members respectively. According to preliminary estimates, 12 NPC members and 9 CPPCC
members assisted in submitting the proposal. Besides informal meetings and discussions with
government agencies, the team also collected opinions from the public and NGOs before the NPC &
CPPCC meetings. They recruited civil society experts in communications and outreach to make
audience-friendly promotional materials for public communication, and used BBS, microblogs and
blogs to communicate with the public.
Chapter 4 The Pluralization of Public Advocacy Actors
I. Advocacy by Foundations and Professional and Trade Groups
Although NGO public advocacy has slowly emerged alongside service provision in recent years,
domestic NGO advocacy work faces a host of challenges. Despite the relaxed regulatory environment
for NGOs, advocacy NGOs or NGOs whose primary work involves advocacy still have difficulty
registering, and NGOs still lack the legal qualifications to engage in administrative and public interest
lawsuits. Moreover, as explained in Chapter 3, NGOs also face fundraising and operational limitations.
Often viewed as one of the strongest actors in the public benefit sector, Chinese foundations progressed
to a new stage following the appearance of the 2004 “Regulations on the Management of Foundations.”
The rise of private foundations and the professionalization of some public foundations, along with the
influx of funding and professional skills, has led to significant changes for the civil society sector.
According to China Foundation Center statistics, by 2011 there were 1,279 registered private
foundations. Among them, corporate foundations generally focused on at least two areas of work --
education was by far the most popular, followed by poverty alleviation, disaster relief, medical aid,
public services, elder care, and children. 12
Researcher Gao Gongjing pointed out that Chinese
foundations have long directed their funding and services toward traditional charity sectors such as
education, poverty alleviation, disaster relief, and disabilities, while devoting significantly less energy
to work in broader sectors such as health, medical treatment, hygiene, public services, community
development, and public advocacy. 13
Researcher Liu Hailong explains that foundations offer society two main products: public funding and
public services – which accurately describes the current state of Chinese foundations. With the further
development of the sector, Chinese foundations will hopefully provide not only funding and services,
but also social innovation. In the United States, for example, foundations have driven social
development by serving as research and development centers which promote social innovation in fields
such as civil rights, social and economic justice, public policy, and international development. 14
In
fact, there are already several private Chinese foundations which have begun to expand beyond a single
category of work, starting a trend of diversification. For example, foundations such as the SEE
Foundation, which mainly supports environmental protection, have developed quickly, as has the
Narada Foundation (南都公益基金会) which supports development of the non-profit sector. In
Guangdong, the Qianhe Foundation (千禾基金会) similarly focuses on funding grassroots
organizations and community development. Because there are so few foundations engaged in public
advocacy, it is particularly significant when foundations do speak out on public affairs. The 2009 “Tax
Protest” has been viewed as a symbolic event in which a number of foundations publicly advocated for
the interest of the public interest sector as a whole. Their collective, one-time stance can be seen as a
significant step forward for the development of the sector.
Case Study: Foundations Join Hands in a "Tax Protest"
12
《中国企业基金会发展报告》(2012)发布 www.gongyi.people.com.cn/n/2012/0713/c152514-18508869.html
13
高功敬. 《中国非公募基金会发展现状困境及政策思路》，济南大学学报( 社会科学版) 2012 年 3 月
14
刘海龙，《论非公募基金会的公益供给功能：分类、供给方式与最优决策》，中国非营利评论，2011 年 1 期
In November of 2009, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation issued a
“Notice on Issues Concerning Corporate Revenue Tax Exemption for Non-Profit Organizations” and a
“Notice on Issues Concerning the Confirmation and Management of Tax Exemption Qualifications for
Non-Profit Organizations',” in order to clarify the scope of non-profit tax exemptions and the required
tax exemption qualifications for non-profit organizations. Due to the excessively narrow scope of the
types of revenue eligible for tax exemption and the excessively strict requirements for tax exemption
qualification, these notices violated the legal rights of non-profit organizations.
On December 22, 2009, nine foundations, including the Narada Foundation, the YouChange
Foundation (友成企业家扶贫基金会), the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF, 中国青少
年发展基金会), signed a joint letter to the State Council requesting an investigation of the legality of
these notices. They also sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation,
requesting an opportunity to dialogue on these issues. Three days later, another 15 public interest
foundations joined in, raising the total number of signatories to 24.
This was not the first time that foundations had voiced their concerns over taxation. In June of that year,
five foundations, including the China Youth Development Foundation and the China Foundation for
Poverty Alleviation (CFPA, 中国扶贫基金会) signed a joint letter criticizing the State Administration
of Taxation's levying of a corporate revenue tax on foundations. At that time, the Ministry of Finance,
the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Civil Affairs were still in the process of
drafting the qualification requirements for foundations. The two Notices in November clarified that
donations were eligible for tax exemption, but only if the foundation applied for and received tax
exemption status. Additionally, they specified that other types of revenue were not eligible for tax
exemption. Faced with a significant challenge to their operation, foundations thus decided to join
together and raise their voices in a united advocacy effort.
The next year, the event was selected by the Beijing University Civil Society Research Center as one of
the “Top Ten Events in 2009 in Civil Society Development.”
According to media reports, Xu Yongguang, who at that time was the Vice Chairman of the CYDF,
debated whether or not to participate in the action. He consulted with Tu Meng, the CYDF’s SecretaryGeneral,
who advised him: "This is not just for our organization, but for the whole sector; there is no
reason not to join." Tu Meng also added his name to the list of signatories.
Up to now, the types of revenue that qualify for tax exemption and the tax exemption qualifications laid
out in the two Notices have not seen any substantive changes, and the foundations have yet to receive a
response from policy makers. However, according to a 2011 "Philanthropy Times" interview, the
CYDF and the Beijing tax department met in the summer of 2010, and CPPCC members raised
concerns over foundation taxation during the 2010 “two sessions” of the National People's Congress
and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Liu Zhouhong, Deputy Secretary-General
of the Narada Foundation, also took advantage of various opportunities to advocate for foundations on
this issue, such as holding a seminar on tax exemptions at the Private Foundation Development Forum,
bringing up tax-exemption difficulties at foundation development seminars, and specifically discussing
tax issues in a chapter on “The Development of Private Foundations in China” in the 2010 Blue Book
of Philanthropy.
(Sources: Media reports and interviews with several foundations)
Chambers of commerce and industry associations, which are also included in the “social organization”
category, have developed rapidly to the point that they provide a check on the market economy, reduce
transaction costs, and contend against the wave of “anti-dumping” claims. They are also able to
represent the interests of groups such as small businesses, consumers, workers, and farmers in the
marketplace and comprise one aspect of civil society development. 15
National and local consumers
associations, which represent the interests of consumers, can be viewed as advocates for vulnerable
consumers. Some industry organizations have carried out policy advocacy for small and medium
enterprises (SMEs). For instance, in the competition over entry rights, the express delivery committee
carried out a comprehensive advocacy action regarding entry rights into the express delivery industry,
holding symposiums and submitting proposals and reports to the NPC and the State Council Legislative
Affairs Office. They also persuaded the State Council Development Research Center and the Chinese
Public Administration Society to carry out a special research project, generating a report which they
submitted to relevant government departments, and working with the media to engage in campaigning
advocacy directed at the national decision-making bodies.
16
II. Individual Citizens Engaged in Public Advocacy
It is much easier for individuals to speak out in Chinese society than for NGOs which are constrained
when it comes to advocacy, it. Compared with NGOs which are constrained in their development and
their ability to influence society, public figures have been more effective at mobilizing a variety of
societal resources. Moreover, with the repeated credibility crises among government-organized
NGOs (GONGOs) in recent years, advocacy carried out by individuals has often inspired more public
confidence.
Many of the individuals who have used traditional and social media as platforms for launching
influential public advocacy programs are public figures who are well-known and socially influential.
Since 2001, Li Yinhe, a noted sociologist and member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has
continuously lobbied NPC and CPPCC representatives to legalize same-sex marriage. On the day
before the NPC’s 2013 plenary session, Li posted a blog article and openly recruited representatives
wishing to present a proposal for same-sex marriage. As a renowned scholar and innovative
researcher, all of Li’s public lectures and written works after the late 1990s have received media
coverage. Since she began to advocate for same-sex marriage, her work has received increasing
coverage by the mainstream media. In interviews with CCTV and IFeng, she has popularized the
concept of equal rights for homosexuals. Unlike the average citizen, Li’s status as an elite scholar
gives her access to powerful representatives in the NPC and the NPPCC. Similarly, Yu Jianrong,
another member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, triggered an even larger chain reaction
after launching “Snapshots of Child Beggars” on the microblogging platform known as Weibo. Yu's
reputation, along with the simple, positive nature of the campaign, attracted enthusiastic participation
from the media, celebrities, and netizens.
In advocacy initiatives concerning issues such as environmental protection, AIDS, opposition to
domestic violence, discrimination in the workplace and social inequality, lawyers are a professional
resource that cannot be overlooked. From the revision of employee training mechanisms to
challenging high-speed train ticket prices, from a China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)
15
王名，《走向公民社会——我国社会组织发展的历史及趋势》，吉林大学社会科学学报，2009 年 5 月
16
周俊，《行业组织政策倡导:现状、问题与机制建设》，中国行政管理，2009 年 9 月
pollution case to the recent case of a battered woman who killed her husband and received the death
penalty, we have witnessed lawyers issuing joint written statements and filing lawsuits. After the
2011 oil spill in Bohai Bay, a lawyer named Jia Fangyi brought a civil case against CNOOC and
Conoco Phillips seeking damages and bringing an administrative claim against the China Oceanic
Administration (COA). A Beijing lawyer named Zhang Taoze also brought an action against the COA
requesting the public disclosure of information regarding the incident. Since 2007, public interest
lawyer Dong Zhengwei has battled unreasonable fees and regulations in the banking, civil aviation,
communication, electric, high-speed rail, petroleum and other monopolistic industries. In September
of 2012, he formally requested that the Ministry of Railways make public all information regarding the
bidding process on the construction and design services on the website “12306.cn”, in accordance with
the Provisions on the Public Disclosure of Government Information. After the request for information
disclosure was rejected, he applied to have the request reconsidered. After being denied again, Dong
filed suit against the Ministry of Railways at the beginning of 2013 for the right to information and
oversight.
Members of the media are another type of social elite which actively participates in public advocacy.
Deng Fei (who launched the “Free Lunch” microblogging campaign), Wang Keqin (“Love Clears the
Lungs”) and Sun Chunlong (“Homecoming for Veterans”) are all well-known investigative reporters
who possess a high level of public credibility. Zhu Ruifeng, whose website “Citizens Supervision
Net” has exposed bureaucratic corruption as well as promoted systemic reform, and Xiong Wei, who
since 1999 has promoted citizen involvement in the legislative process, also have journalistic
experience at both the national and local level. These individuals' professional experience gives them
an advantage in broadcasting advocacy messages. In comparison to other members of society, not
only do members of the media have the right to speak, but they also possess professional connections
that enable them to effectively access information and mobilize resources.
In addition to public figures and professionals who have fame, social resources and professional
experience, there are also everyday people who engage in individual advocacy efforts. Examples
include Li Maizi, a female college student who organized the “Occupy the Men’s Bathroom” initiative,
and the activist Lei Chuang who advocated to put an end to discrimination against Hepatitis B patients.
Their success lies in both their hard work and their unremitting persistence, although it is important not
to overlook the assistance they have received from public websites and NGOs who support their work.
Case Study: Hepatitis B Warrior Lei Chuang
"My name is Lei Chuang. I have Hepatitis B. Today, February 16, 2013, I sent my 698th
letter inviting
the Premier [Wen Jiabao] out for lunch.” An SMS text, a link to the complete text of the invitation letter
and a photo of the letter being mailed; these are the standard format for Lei's anti-hepatitis B (HBV)
discrimination campaign, “A HBV carrier invites the Premier for a meal,” which he launched on Sina’s
microblogging platform, Weibo. Beginning on March 22, 2011, Lei mailed a letter each day inviting the
Premier to dine with him on World Hepatitis Day (July 28). Volunteers (usually passers-by) assisted Lei
in taking photographs of this process, which he then shared on his Weibo account. When his attempt
was unsuccessful in 2011, he continued through to 2012; when 2012 again yielded no response, he
continued through to this year. He has maintained this campaign for more than 700 days, persisting
through the Spring Festival. Lei, who began the campaign with a shaved head, now wears his long hair
in a ponytail. “I didn't grow my hair out as a means of pressuring the Premier to eat with me,” Lei
explained, “but rather to demonstrate the length of time that I had been sending letters.”
Lei, a graduate student at Shanghai Jiaotong University, has been described by the media as a Hepatitis
B warrior. Lei, who has experienced discrimination based on his HBV diagnosis, has fought for the
rights of those with Hepatis B since 2007. Advocating against discrimination toward HBV carriers in
university admissions and employment decisions, Lei sent letters to more than 500 Chinese Academy
of Science scholars and almost 2,000 university presidents, and held satirical performance art protests
outside of government offices and businesses.
In July 2009, in accordance with the recently issued Regulations on the Implementation of the Food
Safety Law of the PRC, Lei applied for health certificates from the local Community Health Center, the
District Health Bureau, the Municipal Health Bureau and the Provincial Health Bureau, and was
ultimately able to become the first person with Hepatitis B in China to obtain a safety certificate to
work in the food industry.
In April 2012, in accordance with the Regulations Regarding the Disclosure of Government
Information, Lei sent letters to the China National Tobacco Corporation, Ministry of Health and 51
other central government departments requesting public disclosure of the 2011 salaries of 53
department and ministry heads. In January 2013, he also used the regulations to request disclosure of
information about university expenditures on international travel, vehicles, and entertainment.
Lei took a year off from his graduate studies to carry out his “Eating With a Traveler” campaign,
traveling to over 30 Chinese cities in order to demonstrate that HBV cannot be transmitted by sharing a
meal. Lei also exposed the practice of surreptitious HBV testing for hospital employees, arousing the
ire of hospitals and businesses. Lei also demonstrated an eagerness to fight all forms of injustice; for
instance, after the Wenzhou high-speed train collision, Lei protested at the door of the Railroad
Ministry.
Prior to the 2013 plenary sessions, Lei continued to attempt to contact government representatives
through emails and Weibo, advocating for HBV issues. By February 21, Lei had contacted 568 NPC
members, resulting in two concrete recommendation letters for the representatives to consult.
Having been asked “what is your motivation?” by numerous reporters, Lei is loath to answer the
question. As he explains, his rights were violated, and he protested. What is so difficult to understand
about that? On the other hand, he is baffled by people who are silent in the face of discrimination.
In response to those who question how Lei has been able to maintain his grassroots advocacy work for
such a long time, he responds “This work has become a part of my life, like eating. I could do it every
day and not get sick of it.”
Of course, Lei Chuang could not have made it this far without support and assistance from volunteers,
the Hepatitis B “comrade” network, and anti-discrimination NGOs. From the passers-by who
photographed him carrying out his “Inviting the Premier for a Meal” campaign, to advice and support
from online platforms and email list-serves for his performance art protests, to assistance from Beijing
Yirenping Center in getting media coverage of his protests, Lei has received valuable assistance from a
various sources.
(Sources: Media reports and interviews with Lei Chuang)
In order to more effectively express appeals for citizen rights, some actions initiated by individuals
avoid the more negative aspects of organizational advocacy. Many activists who were originally NGO
workers have used their individual identities in advocacy activities to initiate joint signings, submit
applications, and raise cases at the plenary sessions of the NPC and CPPCC. The movement to “Gather
10,000 Signatures to Advance Anti-Domestic Violence Legislation” at the end of 2012 in particular
emphasized the principle of “participation from every citizen.” The organizers believed that “every
person is important,” and that every new signature added helps to build the strength of the action.
Moreover, “the reason that Chinese civil society does not have the power to order people around, or to
gather a crowd in a call to action, is not because our work lacks support. Rather, it is because we are
not able to maintain a high profile”.
17
It is only through the united mobilization of ordinary citizens
that we can form strong alliances.
Behind many of the individuals who brought citizen's proposals to the plenary sessions were long years
of research and practice by NGOs in those fields. During the 2008 “two plenary sessions”, a seasoned
NGO AIDS worker with the alias of “Thomas” and [the AIDS activist] Wan Yanhai jointly presented a
proposal in their role as citizens to the NPC and the CPPCC titled “Recommendations Regarding
Reforming the Mechanism for Approval of Pharmaceutical Products, Revision of Relevant Laws, and
the Provision of AIDS Medications.” The proposal raised the issue of shortages in the provision of
AIDS medications and issued an appeal for donations of the AIDS drug TDF. In April of that year, the
China Medical Treatment Advocacy Network (ITPC China) received a telephone notice from the State
Drug Administration indicating that the Ministry of Health had already forwarded the proposal to them
and that they had fully implemented an examination and approval protocol for the donation of TDF.
Against the backdrop of this advocacy, ITPC China and relevant grassroots AIDS organizations
provided the first set of materials and long-term experiential research to make their advocacy more
professional and feasible.
18
III. Entrepreneurs and Media Join Interest Groups Engaged in Advocacy
According to the “three sectors” framework, society can be divided into three sectors. The first sector is
the state, consisting mainly of governmental organizations, with government officials as the primary
agents. The second sector is the private market sector, consisting mainly of businesses, with
entrepreneurs as the primary agents. The third sector is civil society, consisting mainly of civil society
organizations, with citizens playing the central role.19
But these three sectors are not mutually
exclusive. Outside of their professional roles, public officials and entrepreneurs can also choose to be
socially responsible citizens. Entrepreneurs, as a group with an abundance of social resources and
rights, can greatly impact society’s development with their civic awareness and sense of social
responsibility.
Wang Ming believes there are three possible development paths for civil society in China. Besides the
state-led model guided by political elites and the democratic advocacy model guided by intellectual
elites, there is the wealth-driven model guided by economic elites.20
Wang’s “economic elites” refers
to the class of successsful entrepreneurs and wealthy individuals who possess a strong sense of social
responsibility and the capacity to initiate public action. In this development path, economic elites will
promote the development of social organizations, and then use those organizations to promote
17
万人签名促反家暴立法裸胸行动专题报道 www.china-gad.org/Infor/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=16543
18
特诺福捐赠申请被批准 www.univs.cn/newweb/univs/whu/2008-04-29/838272.html
19
俞可平 《中国公民社会研究的若干问题》 《中共中央党校学报》 2007 年 2 期
20
王名，《走向公民社会——我国社会组织发展的历史及趋势》，吉林大学社会科学学报，2009 年 5 月
economic and political democratization. In recent years, many entrepreneurs with a sense of social
responsibility have founded social organizations. In 2004, more than 100 entrepreneurs jointly founded
China’s largest entrepreneur-led environmental NGO-- the Alashan SEE Foundation (阿拉善生态环保
协会). They are the forerunners of the Chinese entrepreneurs concerned with environment and
development issues and actively encouraging democratic self-governance. In addition, included in such
efforts are dozens of members from the China Entrepreneur Club (中国企业家俱乐部) and the
founders of numerous private foundations. Wang Weijia, who is deeply involved with a number of
entrepreneur organizations, believes that, in the current environment, public organizations founded by
entrepreneurs should fit three requirements: they should be self-sustaining, self-governing, and selfregulating
in assuming social responsibility. “Self-regulating” refers not only to abiding by the law, but
also doing the utmost to go beyond one's individual duties. In funding or establishing NGOs,
entrepreneurs with these values have raised appeals based on the public interest.21
Besides founding
civil society organizations and providing support, some entrepreneurs expressed their concerns about
the environment and other social problems through public advocacy.
Case Study: Entrepreneurs’ joint advocacy effort to oppose consumption of shark fins
In 2006 basketball star Yao Ming, a WildAid (野生救援协会) ambassador, filmed a public service
announcement to protect sharks; it created the memorable tagline "when the buying stops, the killing
can too.” Now the WildAid Chinese website’s homepage, which had an ad about refusing to eat shark
fin, was changed to show a video featuring entrepreneurs Huang Nubo, Feng Lun, Hu Baosen, Li
Dongsheng, and Wei Xue saying that entrepreneurs should be concerned about the future. They then
collectively push away the shark fins in front of them, symbolizing the relationship between ecological
preservation and the future of the world. WildAid released the video in July 2012, and it has since been
broadcast on television stations across China.
This is not the first time that Chinese entrepreneurs have spoken out against eating shark fins. In April
2009, at the 2009 China Green Companies Annual Summit, Wang Shi, Feng Lun, Liu Chuanzhi, Ma
Yun, Niu Gensheng and other entrepreneurs joined WildAid in launching the “Protect Sharks, Stop
Eating Shark Fins” public service initiative and, on behalf of 140 entrepreneurs, announced plans to
stop eating shark fins.
WildAid invited entrepreneurs to publicly oppose the consumption of shark fins because "those who eat
shark fins, generally from the middle class or above, are not aware that shark fins can negatively
impact one's health.” Additionally, because business dinners are the primary occasions in which shark
fins are consumed, WildAid believed that the participation of well-known entrepreneurs would
influence the behavior and awareness level of the main consumer group of shark fins.
Besides engaging in advocacy directed at the public, there are entrepreneurs who have undertaken
policy advocacy by submitting proposals to the plenary sessions. In 2011, SEE Foundation director and
entrepreneur, Wan Jie, joined Yang Lan and 45 members of the CPPCC in calling for legislation
banning the shark fin trade. The proposal was later transferred to the Ministry of Commerce. However,
they were unsatisfied with the follow-up response. According to Wan and the SEE Foundation, the
process of enacting legislation prohibiting trade involves multiple departments and is therefore
21
自保、自治、自律——企业家 NGO 的公共诉求 www.21ccom.net/articles/zgyj/gmht/article_2013022777894.html
complex and time consuming. So in 2012 Wan and Ding Liguo, an entrepreneur and NPC
representative, submitted a proposal on controlling shark fin consumption. They changed their
strategy from proposing a ban on the shark fin trade to recommending that regulations be put in place
to prohibit the consumption of shark fins at government receptions. Not only did this move make the
proposal easier to pass, as the relevant departments of the State Council only had to add a clause to
existing regulations on government expenditure, but it also complied with the recent campaign to
decrease government expenditures.
The effects of the strategy change were obvious. On June 29, 2012, Zhang Xingsheng wrote on his
microblog that the Government Affairs Administration of the State Council (国务院机关事务管理局)
sent an official letter (Government Administration Letter (2012) 21) to Ding Liguo, thanking him and
expressing support for his efforts in uniting more than 30 NPC members in proposing
“Recommendations to Establish Rules Prohibiting Consumption of Shark Fins at Government
Banquets.” The letter also clearly stated that there will be a forthcoming regulation prohibiting shark
fins at government banquets. The Department of Policy and Regulation at the Government Affairs
Administration of the State Council verified the letter in response to media inquiries, and expressed
hopes that a formal regulation would be released within three years.
22
(Sources: Internet reports and interviews conducted by the author at a press conference for
environmental conservation proposals.)
The “Stop Eating Shark Fins” initiative demonstrates that public advocacy carried by entreprenuers can
have significant results in a number of areas. Entrepreneurs were able to shape public opinion, exert
peer pressure on their fellow entrepreneurs, and direct their resources toward influencing legislation. In
general, advocacy by entrepreneurs is similar to the funding priorities of foundations: both are mostly
aimed at environmental protection and poverty relief. Entrepreneurs still have a long way to go in
addressing a wider range of social issues.
In addition to enterpreneurs, some media outlets with a sense of social responsibility are, in recent
years, no longer simply acting as a medium for advocacy. Instead, they are taking on a primary role in
initiating public advocacy, and in doing so, adding to an increasingly diverse pool of advocacy actors.
Case Study: Southern Weekly Advocates for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
In October 2004, when the concept of CSR was still new in China, and Forbes and Hurun had not yet
created rankings based on personal wealth, Southern Weekly released China’s first "List of Wealthiest
Chinese Mainlanders." By the end of that year, the list was included in the China International Public
Relations Association's “Top 10 Public Relations Events of 2004.” Experts commented that a list based
on "personal wealth, social responsibility, corporate culture and public image" was refreshing and
valuable for both social and public relations purposes, marking a new chapter for lists of the wealthy in
China.
23
The next year, Southern Weekly released its list of “Fortune 500 Companies Invested in China”
(later renamed the Ranking of Contributions of the Fortune 500 Companies Invested in China"). The
list provides a comprehensive assessment of Fortune 500 investment in China, based on their
investment volume, operations, social responsibility, corporate culture and regional contributions in
China.
22
国务院证实 3 年内将发文规定公务接待不得食用鱼翅 news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2012-07/02/c_112339856.htm
23
【2004-2008 年】南方周末 25 年纪事 www.infzm.com/content/31618
In 2008, Southern Weekly added a "Ranking of State-Owned Listed Companies’ CSR" and established
the China CSR Research Center, with the intent of advocating for CSR by carrying out research and
publishing rankings. Their current evaluation criteria include economic responsibility, products and
services, environmental protection, labor rights protection, charity and public welfare, information
disclosure and public image.
Unlike some non-profit research institutions, which are “attached” to government agencies, the China
CSR Research Center is directly under Southern Weekly. According to the Center, the executive editor
of Southern Weekly is responsible for setting its research agenda which is then supported by
government officials, academics, and other experts. Financially, Southern Weekly allocates special
funds to support its activities. The Center also utilizes the Southern Weekly platform to publish special
editions and CSR case studies. They seek to "promote public awareness of CSR and assist companies
in establishing a comprehensive CSR system" by releasing relevant rankings and promoting research.
24
In addition, Southern Weekly has advocated for corporate social responsibility by holding a CSR
Conference, organizing activities at universities in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing, and establishing
a communication platform between businesses and the media.
(Sources: Summary of relevant reports)
24
《南方周末》，读懂企业社会责任 http://money.163.com/08/1011/01/4NUHCHL900252TVT.html
Chapter 5: Diversity and Differences in Public Advocacy Practices
The last few years have seen the diversification of civil society’s advocacy practices corresponding
with changes in the public advocacy space and a pluralization of the actors engaged in advocacy. In
addition to traditional advocacy inside the system, an ever-increasing number of petitions, performance
art events, headline news, and impact litigation in areas such as health, women’s rights and labor rights
have begun to appear. Additionally, in step with environmental deterioration, environmental advocacy
events, mainly in the form of new social movements, continue to emerge. Of course, in the long-term
process of policy and social change, it is difficult for only one kind advocacy to reach its goals. As a
result, we often see many methods coming together, with different areas of civil society revealing
different practices. In this chapter we analyze a selection of the more influential and effective advocacy
practices in recent years.
I. Impact Litigation in the Areas of Hepatitis B and AIDS
“Impact litigation”, born out of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States of America, usually refers to
typical cases that achieve regional or national attention. These cases may effect changes in legislation,
the legal process, or public policy, influence public attitudes about legislation, and help to safeguard the
rights of marginalized groups. At the start of the civil rights movement, with social change pushing
established boundaries, impact litigation was originally a form of judicialized (司法化) political
activism that was able to catalyze social reform through the common law (判例法) courts of the USA.
Although China is a civil law (成文法) nation, through the pressure of public opinion, successful
impact litigation can facilitate the improvement of unjust laws, shine a light on the shortcomings of
laws and their implementation, and cultivate awareness of and faith in the legal system necessary for a
society governed by law (法治社会).
Naturally, due to the commercial nature of media broadcasting, “impact litigation” may sometimes
cause problems in legal proceedings. The very nature of the media is to seek the widest audience and
economic gain, and not solely to achieve justice. Additionally, media reports, because of the uncertain
nature, may have a disproportionate social impact that results in unpredictable court decisions. These
factors constitute a “trial by media” that Western countries go to great lengths to avoid, such as *[Yao
(Jiaxin), 2010]. However, in the current period when Chinese civil rights institutions have yet to be
fully developed, personal rights generally are not respected or protected, and judicial independence is
still developing, impact litigation is able to have an incremental, yet deep impact on the system, more
often than not being a reason or stimulus for legislative and judicial innovations. Representative cases
of impact litigation such as the Sun Zhigang case in 2003 and the Deng Yujiao case in 2009 received
widespread attention from the media and legal experts. [Editor’s Note: The Sun Zhigang case led to
the end of the institution of Custody and Repatriation (C&R) in 2003. C&R was an administrative
procedure that allowed police to detain people who could not produce their national identity card
verifying their place of residence (hukou). Sun was a Wuhan native who was detained by police in
Guangzhou and sent to the detention center when he could not produce any identification. He was
beaten in the detention center and died a few days later. His death was highly publicized in the media
and internet. A few months later, Premier Wen Jiabao announced the abolition of C&R in China.
Deng Yujiao was a 21 year old female who was approached for sex by a local official in May 2009.
Trying to fight off his advances, Deng stabbed the official several times leading to his death. She was
charged with homicide and not granted bail. When her case attracted a great deal of attention in the
media and internet, the authorities reduced her charge to intentional assault and granted her bail. ]
Impact litigation cases can thus generate greater attention and impact than regular litigation, and even
lead to systemic change.
After the occurrence of Chinese trademark impact litigation case – *[Sun (Zhigang), 2003], the All
China Lawyers Association (ACLA) established the Constitution and Human Rights Commission in
2005, and “impact litigation” was institutionalized. The ACLA has successively provided the stage for
significant case discussion and research and, together with media outlets such as Southern Weekend,
orchestrates the annual “Top Ten Impact Litigation Cases” event.
In the area of anti-discrimination, Hepatitis B and AIDS groups stand out as having clearer and more
specific goals, and these two groups use impact litigation as an important means to fight for equal
rights. In a recent series of impact litigation cases, anti-discrimination NGOs such as the Beijing
Yirenping Center, Equity & Justice Initiative, and Nanjing Justice for All have targeted discrimination
facing Hepatitis B carriers and people infected with AIDS in areas such as education, employment and
medical treatment.
Case Study: Beijing Yirenping Center provides legal assistance for the first case of AIDS
employment discrimination
In the first half of 2010, a fourth-year high school student Xiao Wu (pseudonym) from Anqing city,
Anhui province, was rejected by an Anqing city school after he had passed both the interview and
written portion of the teacher recruitment examination. Due to his HIV positive test results, the Anqing
Education Bureau felt that he was not a suitable candidate according to the Civil Service Examination
Standard. At a legal rights protection forum for infectious disease patients, Xiao Wu found Yu
Fangqiang, a lawyer from the Yirenping Center (北京益仁平中心), who agreed to assist Xiao Wu in
protecting his legal rights. With support from Yirenping, Xiao Wu filed a lawsuit against the Education
Bureau and Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. This lawsuit marked the beginning of the
“rights protection” road for China’s 740,000 people living with HIV/AIDS.
While providing legal assistance, Yirenping also carried out an advocacy campaign outside the legal
process. It sent a letter to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of
Health, urging them to review the legitimacy of some of the clauses in the Civil Service Examination
Standard as well as the Civil Service Recruitment Examination Manual. It also suggested deleting or
altering clauses discriminating against people who test HIV positive in order to eliminate any
systematic health discrimination and prevent any discrimination on an operational level.
Later, this case was heard at the Anqing Yijiang district court in proceedings that were not open to the
public. In mid-November of 2010, the Yijiang district court ruled for the defendant. On November 29,
Xiao Wu appealed to the Anqing intermediate court. On November 30, 81 HIV/AIDS carriers sent a
joint letter to the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security and Ministry of Health, urging a
change in the Civil Service Examination Standard, in an effort to gain equal employment rights for
HIV/AIDS carriers.
Although the first case of HIV/AIDS employment discrimination failed in court, it garnered wide
attention among the general public and the awareness of HIV/AIDS carriers, who have long
experienced discrimination and moral judgements. Yu Fangqiang, the coordinator of Yirenping at the
time, said that this case meant more HIV/AIDS carriers would be informed and encouraged them to
stand and fight for their legal rights. “At the same time, for the general public, it serves as a channel for
disseminating knowledge and eliminating illiteracy about HIV/AIDS.
In January of 2013, the fourth case of AIDS employment discrimination nationwide succeeded, and the
plaintiff Xiao Qi (pseudonym) received compensation of 45,000 RMB from the Xi’an Education
Bureau in Jiangxi. It was the first case of AIDS employment discrimination to be awarded
compensation.
(Media reports and interview with Yufangqiang)
In their struggle against employment discrimination, Hepatitis B and AIDS groups exhibit many
differences in their use of impact litigation. For example, AIDS employment-related cases are fewer
than Hepatitis B cases. In Yu Fangqiang’s view, there are several reasons for this. One is that the
circumstances of people infected with AIDS who encounter employment discrimination are relatively
unknown, and at present there are still no accurate statistics as to whether companies test employees for
HIV when they begin employment. Second, compared to Hepatitis B carriers, people infected with
AIDS are a more marginalized group and thus have a harder time taking the initiative to fight for their
rights. Finally, Hepatitis B carriers are present in many mainstream sectors of society. Many have
received a high level of education and are able to enter into a wider range of industries, some of
which require stricter physical examinations. In contrast, many people infected with AIDS, especially
those infected by selling blood, injecting drugs, etc. tend to seek lower-level jobs that do not require
physical exams.
Apart from this, Hepatitis B groups and AIDS groups face different levels of public acceptance.
Hepatitis B carriers constitute a very large group and, with the dissemination of health education, the
notion that Hepatitis B carriers are entitled to their civil rights, including equal access to employment,
has gained greater public approval. Conversely, online comments over AIDS-related employment
discrimination cases show that netizens are predominantly opposed to the same rights for AIDS carriers.
According to Yu Fangqiang’s analysis, the reasons [for the different attitudes toward AIDS and
Hepatitis B carriers] may have to do with the fact that there are fewer AIDS carriers, and their
economic situation tends to be worse. Yu also notes that AIDS carriers may be less able or not adept at
using the internet, and thus have no way of expressing their opinions in the online public forums.
As for the difference between media reports on discrimination cases regarding AIDS and Hepatitis B,
Yu believes it is hard to give an overall judgment, but differences still exist. For example, cases against
employment-related Hepatitis B discrimination may be praised as part of the top ten impact litigation
by Southern Weekend, but until now, AIDS discrimination cases have not exhibited this trend. It may
be possible that the media is trying to avoid this topic because in the current social climate, individuals
infected with AIDS still tend to be ostracized.
II. Performance art in different advocacy fields
Performance art developed in the late 1960s in the West. In contrast to conventional art forms, it is
distinguished by its inclusive, live performance, event-driven and public-oriented character. Performers
use public spaces, audiences and social issues to create a public event. In this respect, performance art
is a natural tool for public advocacy. As Wang Man’s analysis illustrates, street performance campaigns
are safer, more cost-effective and better controlled than mainstream advocacy within the official system
and high-risk advocacy practices that rely on confrontation. With the help of media coverage they can
be effective in raising public awareness of a particular issue and creating a favourable atmosphere for
policy implementation.
Due to these factors, performance art has in recent years been widely used by vulnerable and
marginalized groups as a public advocacy tool for defending their rights.
In the previously discussed “impact ligitation” cases in the Hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS fields,
performance art was often used as an important tactic to support the case. After Xiao Wu lost his case
in “the first HIV/AIDS employment discrimination lawsuit” in 2010, Shenzhen HIV/AIDS prevention
volunteer Ryoko thought this verdict would set a bad precedent, because “employment is such a
fundamental guarantee of one’s livelihood, and employment discrimination against HIV carriers is a
disaster about which they can not remain silent.” On the weekend, she and her friend staged a
“HIV/AIDS Discrimination!” performance in Lotus Hill Park in Shenzhen to express solidarity with
Xiao Wu’s case. Even when not triggered by lawsuits, performance art remains an important tool in
raising people’s awareness and changing public attitudes to Hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS. Since 2007
“Hepatitis B warrior” Lei Chuang has planned several campaigns which were extensively covered by
the media: “Hepatitis B Hugs” in Erqi Plaza in Zhengzhou, a “Hepatitis B Seeks the Door to Learning”
protest against admission discrimination in front of an elite school in Beijing, a sit-down protest on a
toilet bowl in front of a hospital with a sign “Use the Regulations Banning Hepatitis B Tests as Toilet
Paper” to express opposition to Hepatitis B screening tests.
In recent years performance art has become an imporant advocacy tool in the women’s rights field as
well. The year 2012 can be called the year of performance art for feminists fighting for equal rights.
The year started with the “Occupy the Men’s Toilet” movement in several cities. Then in June there
were online and offline debates in June about “Inappropriate Remarks About Sexual Harassment on
Shanghai’s no. 2 Metro Line.” In July and August, an event billing itself as “Bald Sisters Fight for
Equal Rights for Male and Female Students in National College Entrance Exams” took place. The year
ended with campaign to “Collect 10,000 Signatures Against Domestic Violence”. In all these
campaigns, performance art was used to attract media and public attention. Through performance art,
women’s rights groups and volunteers often voiced their demands in the form of proposal or policy
suggestion. For example, the “Occupy Men's Toilet” movement in 2012 in Guangzhou was supported
by NPC and CPPCC representatives at the national and local levels who presented proposals and
received formal responses from the local governments. The city of Guangzhou even promoted a public
toilet regulation requiring the proportion of male and female toilet cubicles be no less than 1:1.5.
Chinese farmers and migrant workers often used performance art in protecting their interests too,
because the method is inexpensive, relatively safe and restrained, and has a practical wisdom to it.
However, compared to the clear-cut demands and effective tactics in public advocacy for Hepatitis B,
HIV/AIDS and women's rights, farmers and labor groups tend to reflect more individualistic and
grassroot characteristics. On January 1, 1986, fifteen cows decorated in silk suddenly appeared in front
of the Ministry of Justice in Beijing. They were brought from Henan by a farmer Li Zhanjun. The
coking plant of his village owed him 150,000 yuan in unpaid wages, and his lawsuit went through the
county court, the city intermediate court, and the provincial high court without any result. So Li
decided to go to Beijing to complain. In order to attract the Ministry’s attention to his case he spent
over 10,000 yuan to buy fifteen head of cattle and herded them into the capital. This might be the
earliest case of performance art used to defend rights of Chinese farmers.
In recent years, migrant workers have also been using performance art in their “Wage Talks” at the end
of the year. On Jan. 21, 2013, more than 40 migrant workers took up a “Wage Talks-style” horse-riding
dance in the streets of Wuhan to attract public and media attention. [Editor’s Note: This is a play on
the Gangnam Style craze with its signature horse-riding dance move.] Compared to previous years,
when migrant workers would get into the news by staging “suicide-style wage demands,” the costs and
risks of using performance art as a way to recover their hard-earned wages are much lower, but their
performances still express their frustration.
A case analysis of migrant workers teaming up with their families in “Wives Wage Talk Team”
performances suggests that whether their demands can be satisfied or not depend on the relative
strength of workers and their employers in a specific event and area, as well as on the migrant workers’
ability to mobilize and synthesize social resources. But it does not depend on whether they have rights
conferred by the state. Migrant workers are one of the most vulnerable groups in today’s society; alone
they are even weaker. They utilize the uninstitutionalized and uncontrollable factors inherent in
occasional performance art events to get the message out, but this also makes it difficult to establish a
system to protect the interests of the group as a whole. Under present circumstances, labor NGOs are
still finding it difficult to participate in public advocacy activities to defend workers’ interests. In this
regard, one Shenzhen labor organization has experimented with labor advocacy practices by focusing
on female workers using performance art.
Case Study: Shenzhen Hand-in-Hand Worker Activity Space Carries Out Advocacy for Women
Workers Rights
On November, 20th
, 2011, in Shenzhen’s Bao’an Phoenix Mountain Forest Park, a “Wear Her Shoes,
Walk a Mile” event was held. Over 50 male workers walked united together wearing red three-inch
high heel shoes. As they walked, they shouted their slogans, “Men can be tender, women can shoulder
the sky,” “Domestic violence is not a family issue,” and “Reject silence, women must speak!” In front
of the male workers were over 20 female workers in handcuffs which symbolized the many restraints
that society has placed on women. This “Wear Her Shoes, Walk a Mile” public advocacy event was
Hand-in-Hand’s way of celebrating the International Elimination of Violence against Women Day in
2011.
The male workers wearing high heels walked with difficulty following their team leader, but no one
gave up. The female workers shouted their slogans: ‘Reject silence’ ‘Oppose domestic violence’
‘Oppose sexual harassment’ ‘Same work, same pay.’ They wanted to draw everyone’s attention to
women migrant workers fighting for their rights.
According to the event’s director, Wang Baoyu, the goal of “Wear Her Shoes, Walk a Mile” was to get
people to experience what it was like to be a female, to see things from their position and reflect on the
current situation facing Chinese women. The hope was to use this event to persuade the public to pay
attention to and protect the rights of women, and particularly women migrant workers.
On Women's Day, 2012, Hand-in-Hand organized another event, “100 Complaints of Women
Workers.” In addition to using the Internet, they also invited female workers passing by on the street to
write down their complaints and asked volunteers to take photographs. At the end of the events, they
used a picture wall to display the complaints that female workers has written down including physical
harassment, violations of their legal rights, and problems in the work place and with their marriages.
By collecting these complaints, Hand-in-Hand’ raised a proposal during a news conference suggesting
that the All-China Federation of Trade Unions should establish a female worker’s committee or female
committee member in order to involve female workers in factory management and carry out measures
to create equal employment opportunities and equal pay for women. They also urged the factory to
institute a rest period for women who are menstruating, a maternity leave and mechanisms to prevent
and deal with sexual harassment cases, and requested the government provide a babysitting service.
(Sources: Media reports and Wang Man’s interview with Wang Bayou.)
"Hand in Hand" Workmates Activity Room (手牵手”工友活动室) is a volunteer group founded by
concerned workers. It is committed to creating activities for workers, enriching their spiritual and
cultural life and safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests. Wang Baoyu, the"Hand in Hand"
employee, who has been involved in organizing a number of public advocacy activities, believes that
the problems of women workers are often ignored in discussions of labor issues. In addition to common
problems facing both men and women in the factories, women migrating from distant hometowns
have to face problems involving maternity leave, vacation, sexual harassment, equal pay, career
advancement, etc. Furthermore, women are also responsible for housework and children’s education
at home. Consequently, the issues facing women workers are worthy of attention.
In addition, Wang Baoyu feels that, compared to the issues of work-related injuries and occupational
diseases which are difficult to promote, advocacy on behalf of women workers could constitute a
breakthrough in labor advocacy. Given that issues facing women workers have not yet been made a
larger social issue, advocacy promoted through experiential and participatory performance art can
allow individual workers to stand out and make their voices heard.
In Wang Baoyu’s opinion, many labor organizations seem to be more cautious when conducting
advocacy work or even being reported by the media. In the field of rights protection, however, even
without carrying out advocacy work, there is a possibility of self-marginalization. Undertaking
activities with high levels of legitimacy (i.e. low risk) and innovative forms is more likely to be
conducive to an organization’s development. It is more important for the labor organization to have
self-worth --the ability to affirm their own work -- which is the driving force for social progress. Not
only do organizations need self-worth, they have to speak out so that other people can affirm and see
them.
III. The Rise of New Social Movements in the Field of Environmental Protection
From a global perspective, the modern environmental movement has gone through three stages: the
first stage was the natural resources conservation movement in the late 19th
and early 20th
century in the
United States; the second was the modern environmental movement in the United States as well as
other Western developed countries, set off by the publication of [Rachel Carson’s book] Silent
Spring in 1962; the third stage, mainly involved the struggle between environmentalists and polluters
in the 1990s . It was in this stage that environmentalists in China and other developing countries
gradually played an important role. The driving force behind these three stages is the "new social
movements" which are considered the main structural elements of civil society.
With the rise of social movements in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the civil rights, women's rights,
anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, the Western social science community found that social
movements no longer fit the theoretical lens of traditional Marxism which saw the contradiction
between the proletariat and bourgeoisie as the main conflict in capitalist society. As a result, they came
up with a new interpretation which came to be called new social movement theory. Habermas believes
that the new social movement was the consequence of intensive state intervention in the economy and
society after World War II, which led to people’s needs being ignored. These needs are closely related
to an individual's quality of life, self-realization and rights and interests. The reason the new social
movement is considered "new" is that the movement is merely social rather than political or concerned
with the goal of overthrowing a regime. According to McAdam, whether social movements can spring
up depends on three factors: 1) expanding opportunities for societal politics, including changes in the
political opportunity structure brought about by economic and social changes; 2) the power of grass-
roots organizations which should constitute the main actors driving the social movement; 3) a rise in
the awareness of marginalized, vulnerable social groups. The first two factors are the objective cause of
the social movements, while the last factor is the subjective, internal driver.
China specifically appears to be ripe for the rise of new social movements for several reasons. One is
its rapid economic development; second is the expanding policy space as a result of “rule of law” and
“government information disclosure” promoted after “reform and opening”; and third is the rapidly
growing awareness of citizens stemming from economic development, the rise of the Internet, and the
rapid development of civil society organizations in recent years. In fact, the spate of environmental
“mass actions” since the PX incident in Xiamen in 2007, has been seen by many as a sign that social
movements might occur first in the environmental protection sector. However, unlike in the West, the
recent environmental protests in China, were not initiated by environmental NGOs. As Huo Weiya,
editor-in-chief of the “Environmental Youth Review ”, puts it, in the matter of environmental protection,
environmental organizations are separated from “mass actions”. On the one hand, environmental
organizations dare not participate in “mass actions”; on the other, participants in “mass actions”
complain that environmental organizations do not offer assistance. Certainly, many people like Huo
Weiya, who pay attention to Chinese environmental NGOs and are familiar with them understand that
NGOs in China have always operated under constraints. There is also the sensitivity of the term "social
movement" in the current context. At the same time, we cannot ignore the solid work that
environmental organizations carry out in more and more grass-roots communities can not be ignored.
When the meaning of "sensitivity" is deconsructed, however, both the government and NGOs should
reconsider that social movements should be a normal mechanism, during this current social
transformation, for building a harmonious society as well as promoting social stability. Most of the
social movements in the West have been institutionalized. Even though there are a great many social
movements, the possibility of a revolution approaches zero. The main function of the new social
movements in the West is as follows: to compensate for government failure and market failure through
the initiative of participants in the movement , and to demonstrate people’s new understanding of
democracy and political challenges, in order to further promote social pluralism and diversity.
Due to the informal nature of public participation and social movements in China, public participation,
especially involving rights protection demands, lacks an effective feedback mechanism. Many
NGOs are often afraid or unable to play a role. This results in spontaneous mass “rights-protection”
actions becoming the main channel for vulnerable groups to express their interests and appeal for their
rights. This “new social movement with Chinese characteristics,” on one hand, reflects a growing civic
awareness, and promotes the ability of the masses to participate. On the other hand, it calls for further
reforms in the system and an organizational response from NGOs.
Case Study: Beijing Yirenping Center provides legal assistance for the first case of AIDS
employment discrimination
In the first half of 2010, a fourth-year high school student Xiao Wu (pseudonym) from Anqing city,
Anhui province, was rejected by an Anqing city school after he had passed both the interview and
written portion of the teacher recruitment examination. Due to his HIV positive test results, the Anqing
Education Bureau felt that he was not a suitable candidate according to the Civil Service Examination
Standard. At a legal rights protection forum for infectious disease patients, Xiao Wu found Yu
Fangqiang, a lawyer from the Yirenping Center (北京益仁平中心), who agreed to assist Xiao Wu in
protecting his legal rights. With support from Yirenping, Xiao Wu filed a lawsuit against the Education
Bureau and Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. This lawsuit marked the beginning of the
“rights protection” road for China’s 740,000 people living with HIV/AIDS.
While providing legal assistance, Yirenping also carried out an advocacy campaign outside the legal
process. It sent a letter to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of
Health, urging them to review the legitimacy of some of the clauses in the Civil Service Examination
Standard as well as the Civil Service Recruitment Examination Manual. It also suggested deleting or
altering clauses discriminating against people who test HIV positive in order to eliminate any
systematic health discrimination and prevent any discrimination on an operational level.
Later, this case was heard at the Anqing Yijiang district court in proceedings that were not open to the
public. In mid-November of 2010, the Yijiang district court ruled for the defendant. On November 29,
Xiao Wu appealed to the Anqing intermediate court. On November 30, 81 HIV/AIDS carriers sent a
joint letter to the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security and Ministry of Health, urging a
change in the Civil Service Examination Standard, in an effort to gain equal employment rights for
HIV/AIDS carriers.
Although the first case of HIV/AIDS employment discrimination failed in court, it garnered wide
attention among the general public and the awareness of HIV/AIDS carriers, who have long
experienced discrimination and moral judgements. Yu Fangqiang, the coordinator of Yirenping at the
time, said that this case meant more HIV/AIDS carriers would be informed and encouraged them to
stand and fight for their legal rights. “At the same time, for the general public, it serves as a channel for
disseminating knowledge and eliminating illiteracy about HIV/AIDS.
In January of 2013, the fourth case of AIDS employment discrimination nationwide succeeded, and the
plaintiff Xiao Qi (pseudonym) received compensation of 45,000 RMB from the Xi’an Education
Bureau in Jiangxi. It was the first case of AIDS employment discrimination to be awarded
compensation.
(Media reports and interview with Yufangqiang)
As with the Shifang protests, the protests in Qidong which received the support of netizens, the public
and the media, quickly subsided. But looking at the process, there is the possibility of violence in mass
events with a tendency for emotions to get out of hand. According to the sociologist Ying Xing,
public sentiment (“anger”) in China’s mass incidents has some connection to the “crowd” or “herd”
mentality described by the French social psychologist Le Bon. Yet there are differences between the
two. Le Bon believed that individuals are usually rational, but when they act as a part of a group and no
one is expected to take personal responsibility, they can become irrational. Ying points out that as far as
the possible negative impacts of mass incidents in China is concerned, they need to be understood in
the context of the social structure. Many mass incidents are triggered by the suppression, or
unsatisfactory outcome, of petitions submitted to authorities and when lawful resistance is found
ineffective, it slowly escalates into unrest. In China’s social structure, one still needs to be aware of the
absence of institutionalized public participation.
The political scientist, Tang Hao, argues that current public involvement in the environmental
movement is a result of the failure of the state’s environmental governance. As the conventional
environmental governance actors prove incapable of fulfilling their role, popular, spontaneous
environmental movements enter the social arena as a new actor participating in environmental
governance. But no matter how dynamic the movement is, it has not been able to bring a change in the
system. Projects impacting the environment have been halted due to popular unrest, but the project
decision-making mechanism, the power of developers, and other systemic arrangements have not
changed at all.
In "Review of and Reflections on China's Sustainable Development (1992 - 2011)", Chang Cheng
suggests that in China’s development over the past two decades, public involvement in environmental
protection has relied on three main forces: the emergence and actions of environmental NGOs;
government reforms; and spontaneous environmental actions by ordinary citizens with support from the
media. These three forces sometimes support and promote each other, but most of the time they are
relatively independent, not having any contact or interaction. The important question that the
government and NGOs still need to address in the context of the emergence of new social movements
is how to create synergies between these three forces.
IV. “Manufacturing News” – Using Controversial Topics to Promote Participation and Change
In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir published “The Second Sex”, a book regarded as the starting point of
second-wave feminism. In the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the feminist movement
was linked to the civil rights struggle for African-Americans, but it was not until March 1970 when U.S.
Newsweek ran a cover story headlined “Women in Revolt” that the topic appeared for the first time in
a major American newsmagazine. Back then, Newsweek itself was facing serious workplace gender
discrimination issues. That same day, female employees of the magazine filed a case against it,
claiming that regardless of their elite education and equal professional skills, women were
discriminated against and almost always hired to work only as mail sorters or fact checkers. Those
media employees have contributed significantly to the fight for women’s rights. In present day China
too, freedom of expression in the media plays an essential role in public advocacy for marginalized
groups.
In 2004, when Xu Bin, the founder of LGBT rights organization “Common Language” (同语), returned
from the U.S., she quickly realized that women’s rights and especially the subject of lesbians are
marginalizes issues in China. Xu felt that in both media reports and internal civil society organization
agendas, lesbian advocacy was being neglected. At a debate in early 2012, she raised the questions:
Why do problems have to be ranked? Why should gay issues be considered less important than
mainstream issues?
In the current media reality of prioritizing certain topics, gay groups in recent years have carried out
activities to advocate for same-sex marriage every year around Valentine’s Day in an example of
manufacturing news through controversial topics in order to increase the visibility of its actions. On
Valentine’s Day 2009, for example, Beijing gay activists on Qianmen Street staged a wedding photo
session and attracted major media attention. On Valentine’s Day 2012, two gay couples went to
Beijing’s Chaoyang District Civil Affairs office to try to register their marriages as part of an advocacy
campaign launched by the Beijing LGBT Center (北京同志中心). According to the Center’s director
Guo Ziyang, the two couples were not actually in a relationship and one of the ladies was not even gay
– she participated in the campaign to support her gay friends. In late February 2013, two more samesex
couples from Beijing and Guangzhou applied for a marriage registration. Their requests were
denied, but a post on the official micro-blog of the influential Xinhua News Agency stated: “A
society that strives to be more progressive and open will offer people who love each other tolerance
and respect, regardless of their sexual orientation”, “The gay community is becoming a social group
that cannot be ignored. But the law is still silent…. homosexuality is an issue we can start to address”.
Even when issues are from the same advocacy area, they are inevitably prioritized by the media. Lu Pin
believes that, although both are a form of women’s rights-based advocacy, advocacy against
employment discrimination gets greater media attention than advocacy against domestic violence. This
is due to the fact that traditional media sees the former as a new topic. Moreover, aside from the few
NGOs that have been engaged in anti-discrimination advocacy, there are almost no other authoritative
advocates in the field. In contrast, practically everyone can comment on the subject of domestic
violence, with the Women’s Federation an example of one of the more mainstream and advocates.
Furthermore, domestic violence in China is regarded as a kind of cultural phenomenon and thus has
difficulty getting the media’s attention (the case of Li Yang [founder of the Crazy English schools] is an
exception since Li Yang is a celebrity). Those who advocate publicly against domestic violence
therefore have a hard time getting media attention. In this context, some feminist volunteers have tried
to create controversy in their efforts to promote public advocacy.
Case Study: "Nudists Against Domestic Violence" break traditional media taboos and promoting
change in the process.
On November 7, 2012, a group of public-interest volunteers circulated a petition to fellow netizens
which sought 10,000 signatures in support of an open letter – addressed to the National People’s
Congress – calling upon the government to examine domestic violence legislation. By January 2013
the volunteers had collected 12,000 signatures (both online and offline), setting a record for
participation in a citizen-led women's rights advocacy campaign.
Following the initial circulation of the letter, the petition rapidly attracted more than 1,000 signatures.
However, interest soon waned – as tends to be case with all on-line activities – so in an attempt to
attract signatories, the volunteers uploaded nude shots in an effort to grab the attention of users.
According to figures published in an e-journal, Women’s Voices, by the end of 2012, fifteen participants
– including men, women and transsexuals living in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shandong, Jiangsu and
Zhejiang – had published nude or semi-nude photos on Sina.com in support of the campaign against
domestic violence. Although the images stirred up support for the campaign, they were also
controversial as many browsers asked “what has domestic violence got to do with nudity?” while
others condemned the photos as an example of evil consumerism.
The main purpose of the campaign was to arouse controversy – without which there would not have
been any interest or discussion in the issue. It is difficult for anything other than mainstream issues to
secure coverage in the heavily restricted traditional media. Using nudity to campaign against domestic
violence is an effort to use social media break free of those restraints. According to LüPin, female
nudity would struggle to find coverage in the mainstream media to the extent that even if it is
mentioned it is associated with negative news. However, through the use of social media, feminists
are able to link nudity with the more “politically correct” issue of domestic violence to create an
innovative form of advocacy.
From a feminist perspective, nudity and domestic violence are naturally related. One of the
participants, Li Maizi, said that “At first glance, a lot of people see the connection between nudity and
domestic violence as far-fetched, while others say that this approach will make people uncomfortable.
But why feel uncomfortable? This has to do with the female body having long been a taboo subject.
Topless nudity challenges the male’s “right” to control the female body." What’s more, domestic
violence towards women often occurs precisely because a lot of men believe they have control over
their wives’ bodies.
Li Maizi has taken inspiration from the Occupy the Men's Room campaign and other women's rights
advocacy activities. She says, “we realised afterwards that this [campaign] gave us some direction.
We learned that when we need to do some really vital campaigning, we can link different issues
together – for example domestic violence and autonomy over one’s body. What’s more, when I went
to observe Li Yang’s domestic violence court hearing, I can use the opportunity to publicise the trial of
Li Yan, a victim of domestic violence who is currently standing trial for the murder of her husband in
Sichuan.”
Yet, according to an article that appeared in Women’s Voices, the nude photos were not disseminated as
widely as hoped, and many people remain confused about the link between domestic violence and
nudity. Moreover, the campaign very nearly did not gain traction on the internet, being broadcast
through the mainstream media and according to the current broadcasting rules, when mainstream media
does not identify an online campaign as “important" the issue is unlikely to gain extensive coverage.
LüPin believes that nudity already has a broader significance which lies beyond the campaign to
collect signatures against domestic violence. She believes, rather, that the value to each participant
lies in “the process of self-liberation and the increased sharing of ideas among supporters.”
As far as public advocacy is concerned, LüPin believes that policies, the system and even society will
be the last to undergo change. She argues that were policies to appear first, without the full
participation of the people, they would be ineffective. Therefore, the process itself is the basis for
change, while the degree of participation in the process will determine the quality of both the policy
and the social change.
(Sources: Women’s Voices and interviews with Lü Pin and Li Maizi.)
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Compared with China Development Brief's 2006 NGO Advocacy in China report, the developments in
Chinese public advocacy in recent years (particularly after 2008) are quite pronounced. In addition to
those groups which continue to focus on “building a strong relationship and effective communications
with the government,” some NGOs have adopted a rights-based perspective to carry out public
advocacy, utilizing the media and social media to exert public pressure. These approaches reflect the
diversified NGO advocacy approaches that have accompanied the expansion of social spaces in
Chinese society. Additionally, we can observe how NGOs have progressed from collaboration with the
business sector to serving a supervisory, advocacy-based role toward businesses. In recent years,
Chinese civil society has begun to emphasize the functions and values of public advocacy, as well as to
create advocacy NGOs and NGO networks. At the same time, NGOs and networks have worked to
expand the effectiveness of public advocacy, emphasizing public participation and policy change.
These groups have sought to share the needs of the public and promote change in government and
business by developing channels of communication between the public, government, and businesses.
In addition to traditional NGOs, other actors such as foundations, entrepreneurs, individual citizens,
and media outlets have also become the agents of public advocacy in recent years. The support and
participation of foundations, entrepreneurs, and the media, which possess extensive social resources
and public influence, have expanded the boundaries of Chinese civil society. As for the forerunners
who have engaged in public advocacy as individuals, they have served as a model of citizens carrying
out their rights and responsibilities.
The forms and methods of advocacy have also diversified, incorporating tactics such as impact
litigation, performance art, petitions, and “manufacturing news.” As China’s environmental problems
have deteriorated, widespread public participation in anti-pollution movements has also become part of
the advocacy carried out by Chinese civil society.
These changes are closely tied to the expansion of public advocacy spaces. The government has
adopted new standards which include a comparative easing of regulations concerning registration and
management of grassroots NGOs and foundations, as well as incorporating the concepts of lawful
administration and public supervision. Social media has become an exciting space for “micro-public
interest” work and a major platform for public advocacy, and mainstream media has begun to actively
report on the public interest sector.
In short, along with the major changes in the structure of Chinese civil society, the actors,
organizational structures, advocacy techniques, and representatives of interest groups all experienced
greater diversification. In addition to the analysis in this report, we believe that the following points
concerning Chinese public advocacy are worthy of further discussion:
I. Public Advocacy with Chinese Characteristics and Regional Variations
This report demonstrates that in comparison with traditional methods of advocacy carried out within
the system, many NGOs use concepts of social movements and rights-based values that reflect a
“Western” approach, which are apparent in features such as moderate resistance and public pressure.
But analysis of the advocacy strategies and methods of Chinese NGOs must also take into account the
Chinese situation, including the sensitivity of certain topics and the limited space allowed by the
system. In terms of the groups which engage in public and rights advocacy, “different political systems
have different rights protection laws. Thus, NGOs from different places must focus on adjusting
international rights protection conventions to the local laws and regulations when designing their
advocacy strategy.”
25
For instance, when Green Choice Alliance (绿色选择) was implementing its
“offline” consumer social mobilization, they considered the sensitivity of large-scale social
mobilization and decided to focus solely on university students, only including the general public in
their online mobilization efforts through social media and a web platform. Among the advocacy
methods highlighted in this report, those who utilize performance art tactics aim to achieve the greatest
amount of public influence, while at the same time seeking to avoid becoming a “public incident.”
Additionally, communities affected by pollution often emphasize their “non-organized” nature by
calling their protests “taking a stroll”. These are all strategies which reflect the Chinese situation. In
short, while the space for public advocacy has expanded, it still remains quite limited.
In addition, the form public advocacy takes varies regionally and is closely related to the attitudes of
local government, local media, and the local public. Relatively speaking, governments in more
developed areas have a clearer concept of public governance, and are thus more open to NGOgovernment
interactions and diversified public advocacy methods than those in China's less-developed
interior. Media in areas with more market competition also tend to look more favorably on public
advocacy methods such as performance art. NGO attitudes and approaches toward public advocacy will
also vary depending on the region. In the country's interior, where interaction between government and
NGOs is extremely limited, many groups still rely on “traditional” advocacy methods emphasizing
government collaboration. These groups focus on development projects in order to gain the trust and
support of the government, and seek to promote public participation through mechanisms sanctioned by
the government. Thus, Chinese NGOs seeking to engage in public advocacy must carefully consider
local conditions.
II. What Roles Should NGOs Play in Public Advocacy?
In addition to the service provision role which NGOs continue to play in collaboration with the
government and businesses, public advocacy on the whole has also rapidly developed. Yet due to the
nature of Chinese policies regarding NGOs and regional variations described above, the space for
advocacy can vary drastically depending on the issue area.
NGOs working in certain fields, such as women's rights and anti-hepatitis B discrimination, have often
served as the nucleus for public advocacy efforts in their sector. Other fields, such as migrant labor
rights protection, have gradually seen the space for advocacy shrink or even disappear entirely, due to a
number of factors. Environmental NGOs have also maintained their distance from the public
movements and protests regarding pollution in recent years. Looking more closely at the internal
workings of these fields, organizations are often divided into the “spokespeople on the frontlines” and
“backend support.” In the field of anti-domestic violence work, for instance, specialized organizations
such as the anti-violence network (反家暴网络) and Beijing Zhongze Women's Legal Counseling and
Service Center (北京众泽妇女法律咨询服务中心) have accumulated research and resources based on
years of work that serves as a supporting platform for today's women's rights activists. Between sectors,
there is also the possibility of mutual support for a cause.
To sum up, in light of the variations in regional policy and special Chinese characteristics, as well as
25
《了解：人权知识框架》（面向艾滋病草根组织的人权课程），亚洲促进会，泰国艾滋治疗行动，东珍人权
教育与实践中心合作编写。
the organizational style and professionalism required for public advocacy, NGOs working in different
fields may play a variety of roles ranging from core activist to sideline supporter.
It is worth noting that for both individual and organizational advocacy, there may be significant
differences in terms of issue areas, positioning and space. Integrating the two, therefore, will require
careful strategizing.
Nonetheless, the disparate nature and high risk of individual public advocacy actions calls for greater
involvement from those with NGO backgrounds. Professional, effective organizations can improve the
division of labor, decision-making, and the incentive system for participants, while also bringing in
outside resources and connecting with other social forces. When disadvantaged groups are unable to
represent their own interests in the public sphere, NGOs can serve as their spokespeople. Public
advocacy without an NGO component lacks sustainability and may experience difficulty in
implementing advocacy goals and promoting systemic social change.
III. Public Advocacy Expresses the People’s “Expectations for a Comfortable Life.”
The protection and expression of citizens' rights through public advocacy is an irreversible trend in
social development. The government must address the question of how, in the face of a rapidly
changing society, to implement mechanisms for expressing the interests of all social classes
(particularly disadvantaged groups), in a manner that is legal, orderly, and unimpeded.
Compared with NGOs, the government is quite pragmatic, and not interested in abstract discussions
about the concept of “rights.” However, like NGOs, the government is very concerned with finding
solutions for “the maintenance of stability” and “social harmony.” This will require a mechanism for
balancing the interests and needs of different social groups, and balancing economic expansion with
environmental protection and social stability. With the diversification of social interest groups and the
development of widespread social conflicts and contradictions, this sort of balance becomes even more
difficult to achieve. At the same time that the government and the market are collaborating to promote
social advancement, the value of public advocacy carried out by a Chinese civil society independent of
the government and market should not be overlooked.
If the mechanisms of “maintaining stability” and “social construction” are entirely implemented by the
government, they will constrain the development of self-governance and the ability of society to
address and respond to social issues. The government should gradually progress from supporting
service organizations to implementing policies that offer systematic communication channels for
orderly NGO advocacy, while affirming the value of independent advocacy by citizens and NGOs.
In the present situation, in which society is urgently calling for the implementation of reforms which
address the current social crises, an independent civil society can improve society's ability to deal with
those problems and provide reform energy from outside of the system. A measurement of this ability
will include the effectiveness and efficiency of service provision NGOs in responding to social needs,
and the ability of and space for advocacy-type organizations to check powerful interests, balance
competing interests, and promote the fair distribution of social resources.
In the current development situation today, the development of the advocacy function of NGOs is still
limited. Public advocacy by NGOs is still to a large extent focused on raising public awareness. Yet the
ultimate goal of public advocacy is to use heightened public awareness as the basis for engaging the
government and businesses in a dialogue in order to facilitate changes in policy and behavior.
Therefore, public advocacy ultimately is about promoting public participation in systemic change and
construction.
Public participation has advanced the rise of public advocacy, while also calling for the response of
NGOs and the government. In the current conditions of Chinese society, the response of the
government is more important. If the government, which faces NGOs and a public waiting on the
sidelines, can create innovative public participation mechanisms and provide a supportive environment
for normalizing public advocacy, then in the future they will be able to understand the interests and
opinions of the public. Building on this understanding, they will be able to draw on the participation of
different interest groups, promote a balance between these interests, equitably distribute social
resources, and truly achieve a stable and harmonious society through the implementation of reform and
development.
In November of 2012, the newly appointed CPC General-Secretary Xi Jinping announced the following
to the Politburo Standing Committee: “The people love life, and hope to have a better education, more
stable work, more satisfactory salaries, more dependable social security, higher quality medical
services, more comfortable living conditions, and a more beautiful environment. They hope for their
children to grow up in an even better situation, to have better work, and a better life. The people's
expectation of a better life is the goal for which we fight.”
26
“The people's expectation of a better life”
is exactly what the advocates who represent the citizens’ interests seek to achieve.
26
习近平在政治局常委见面会上的演讲 www.news.youth.cn/gn/201211/t20121115_2617441.htm
Appendix: Summaries of Chinese-language Advocacy Readings
Strategies and Techniques for NGO Media Advocacy
Using the media to respond to public opinion and to produce public pressure is an important tactic for
achieving advocacy aims, and is one of the essential components of advocacy work. In this report, a
product of a workshop in GAD Network's (GAD 网络) advocacy project, Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences children's rights expert Bu Wei sets forth the steps necessary for NGOs to utilize the media for
publicity activities. Zhou Meiyue describes two successful Greenpeace cases, providing directions to
help NGOs understand and use the media. Although it is directed toward women's NGOs carrying out
gender-focused advocacy, the media advocacy methods introduced by experts and activists from
different backgrounds (children's rights and environmental advocacy) make this report a valuable
resource.
GAD Network Advocacy Project, May 2005
www.genderwatch.cn:801/detail.jsp?fid=301622&cnID=90080
Drug Users Human Rights Record and Advocacy Manual
This manual introduces examples of human rights violations and the drug users who have silently
accepted these abuses. It is intended to serve as a crucial tool in assisting activists to develop a human
rights advocacy plan. As for the records of human rights infringement, whether from the victims, police
records or video materials, these serve as evidence to push for accountability for this type of behavior.
The author also hopes that this manual will inform people about the relationship between drug users
and human rights.
Written by Karyn Kaplan, translated by the Dongjen Center for Human Rights Education (东珍人权教
育与实践中心)
www.asiacatalyst.org/zhongwen/#baogao
NGO Advocacy in China
Produced at a time when the term “advocacy” was first being introduced to Chinese civil society, this
report compiled research based on interviews with 40 NGOs. Among these were 10 GONGOs, 10
business and professional associations, and 20 “grassroots” NGOs. The report has been helpful in
allowing Chinese organizations share their opinions and practices concerning advocacy. It enables peer
organizations to better understand this aspect of their field, and encourages them to consider their own
organizations' future. It has also helped researchers and government agencies understand the
development of Chinese civil society.
China Development Brief, 2006
www.cdb.org.cn/qikanotherindex.php
NGO Advocacy Manual: Integrating Migrant Workers in Urban Environments
This manual compiles the methods and tools suited to Chinese NGOs, in order to enable readers to
understand the ways in which grassroots NGOs utilize innovative strategies, combined with their own
perseverance, to successfully carry out advocacy projects. Most importantly, the processes and tools set
forth in this manual serve to transform advocacy from a “mysterious science,” which can only be
carried out by certain individuals, into a skill that anyone can study and use.
Social Resource Institute (社会资源研究所) (funded by GCAP), August 2011
www.csrglobal.cn/publications.jsp
Understanding: The Human Rights Framework (A Human Rights Course for Grassroots AIDS
NGOs)
The best methods for fighting rights infringement are: 1) understanding your basic rights; 2) carrying
out investigations and recording examples of rights infringement; and 3) designing and implementing
advocacy activities to end rights infringement. This manual provides a basic introduction to
international human rights law, and explains how to use these laws to resolve issues facing those with
autoimmune diseases and AIDS. It also sets forth newly-developed rights protection practices for the
AIDS sector and provides resources for civil society advocacy.
Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group, Asia Catalyst, and Dongjen Center for Human Rights Education,
2011
www.asiacatalyst.org/zhong_wen/
Health for All, We Can Do It: Training Manual for NGO Participation in Public Health Work
What obstacles and challenges prevent NGOs from participating in the public health field? Why have
NGOs not participated in the “Health for All” project? This training manual includes cases such as the
melamine incident, consumers' cooperatives and community support for agriculture, Yirenping’s (益仁
平) legal aid and anti-discrimination advocacy for HBV patients, advocacy directed towards health
organization to identify and aid victims of domestic abuse, and evidence-based hygiene system
evaluations to answer the above questions.
Edited by the Beijing Horizon Educational Center (北京市朝阳区康众卫生服务中心), funded by the
Ford Foundation
www.doc88.com/p-330760945572.html
How to Use Shadow Reports to Carry Out Policy Advocacy -- Advocacy Cases from Beijing
One Plus One Disabled Person's Cultural Development Center (一加一（北京）残障人文化发展
中心)
On August 31, 2010, the Chinese government submitted its first report to the United Nations
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In April of 2012, the Beijing One Plus One
Disabled Person's Cultural Development Center submitted a shadow report to the UN. Its aims included:
“finding a baseline”; including Chinese NGOs in international affairs; using the convention and the
shadow report to promote changes in the domestic situation; and serving as an independent, rightsbased
voice for disabled persons.
GCAP China (全球消除贫困联盟中国), 2012
www.cdb.org.cn/ngo_talkview.php?id=3698
How to Carry Out Effective Performance Art-- Modeled on “The Injured Bride” and
“Occupying Men's Toilets” Activities
The author wrote this manual based on her experiences with two recent volunteer-organized
performance art activities in Guangzhou and Beijing-- “The Injured Bride” and “Occupying Men's
Toilets.” The manual introduces the components of successful performance art activities, including the
costs, efficiency, and scope, and compares performance art methodology to other types of advocacy
methods. Although both cases involve gender issues, the analysis of methods and strategies set forth in
this manual will be useful for all organizations and individuals who are interested in using performance
art in public advocacy campaigns.
Written by Wang Man for CDB's Spring 2012 Edition, published by the Intellectual Property Rights
Press (知识产权出版社)
www.cdb.org.cn/qikanarticleview.php?id=1297
China Government Transparency Watch (《透明度》月刊)
China Government Transparency Watch collects, organizes, and analyzes new advances and issues in
the Chinese government transparency and information disclosure. Information disclosure is the starting
point for public advocacy, and government transparency, which leads to openness concerning laws and
regulations that influence the public, constitutes an important basis for civil society advocacy.
Beijing University Center for Public Participation Studies and Supports (CPPSS) (北京大学公众参与
研究与支持中心)
www.cppss.cn
Learning for Change-- Evaluative Techniques for Advocacy Work
The complicated nature of advocacy can be observed in four aspects: 1) the globalization of advocacy
work; 2) the rise of a diversified civil society; 3) the increasing diversification of advocacy work; 4) the
increasing diversification of strategy. The authors advocate using rights and rights composition analysis
to create an advocacy strategy, and also provide an effective evaluation of advocacy work. Effective
monitoring and analysis must be very flexible; it must be able not only to adapt to external incidents,
but also to serve as a tool for transforming advocacy movements.
By Barry Coates and Rosalind David, first published in Developments in Practice magazine (《实践中
的发展》杂志), translated by CC and Sylvia (volunteers at NGO.CN)
www.oxfam.org.cn/down_s.php?id=72
Citizens' Guide to Government Information Disclosure
What types of government information should be disclosed? What types of organizations are
responsible for information disclosure? What channels exist for government information disclosure?
How can we maintain the right to government information disclosure? This book, which explains the
Regulations on Government Information Disclosure and introduces their implementation plan, answers
these questions and provides analysis of fields which should practice information disclosure, such as
public infrastructure, environment, education, and land.
Beijing University Center for Public Participation Studies and Supports (CPPSS), Legal Publishing
House (北京大学公众参与研究与支持中心著，法律出版社), April 2011
www.doc88.com/p-462113673379.html
Chinese Environmental Advocacy Guide
This manual is composed of six chapters, which provide in-depth discussions of environmental
advocacy's foundation, preparation, methods, strategies, collaborations, and legal protections.
Providing definitions, introduction to methods, case analysis, and discussion, as well as activity tips,
this book is a useful and easy-to-read resource.
Edited by Ma Tiannan, funded by the Denmark Human Rights Center, published by the Intellectual
Property Rights Press, September 2011
www.eac-cn.org
The Ups and Downs of Funding Advocacy NGOs-- Analysis of Their Influence
Asian NGOs must often adjust their priorities to meet the interests of funders. The power imbalance
between funders and advocacy NGOs, for instance, led to many crises in their legality and
effectiveness. This article analyzes the influence of constantly changing international funders on
advocacy NGOs in Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand, and provides suggestions for funders.
By Thomas Parks, originally published in Developments in Practice magazine, published by Oxfam UK,
translator: Liang Lijuan
www.oxfam.org.cn/down_s.php?id=108