Leap And Difficulties Of Modern Chinese Charity

The development of Charities and public services, as an indicator of social civilizationand progress, is an important content of social security as well as one of the foundations in thebuilding of a harmonious society. The establishment of charity ideology, the development ofcharity and the relief to the poor are not only important measures to resolve the contradictionsof polarization between the rich and the poor of our country in the process of developing amarket economy so as to avoid large-scale social unrest, but also an important content incarrying forward the Chinese nation’s fine traditions and enhancing people’s ethical standards.After the founding of New China, due to changes in the national governance structureand the influence of the "left", the development of charity once hit the lowest level. After thereform and opening up, with the gradual establishment of the socialist market economy withChinese characteristics, the development of modern charity has been highly valued as socialprogress and development of civilization by the whole society. The establishment of ChinaCharity Federation in1994was undoubtedly an important symbol of the development ofmodern charity in China. Since then, the socialist charity with Chinese characteristics has runinto the "high-speed fast lane＂. The number of charity organizations increased to nearly300,000in2010from zero in1994.①The amount of donated funds and materials received bythe civil administrations throughout China is only28.4billion yuan between1996and2005,②but this figure reached33.278billion yuan in the year2009.③The proposal for thedevelopment of charity was made for the first time in the Fourth Plenary Session of theSixteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. It was proposed that “a socialsecurity system consisting of social insurance, social relief, social welfare and charity be established ",①"by mobilizing to the full extent all positive factors to continuously improvethe ability to build a socialist harmonious society."②This has deepened the understanding ofthe social role of charity and pointed out a direction for the development of charity.In recent years, the charity awareness of the public has been generally strengthened andthe role of modern charity in promoting social progress has been significantly improved, withthe number of charity organizations at all levels and the amount of charity donations increased.However, at the same time, many other problems related to the development of charity havebecome more apparent. The “Guo Meimei event" that occurred in June2011inspired thewidespread concern of the people on the issue of charity. Many questions were raisedconcerning the transparency in the use of charitable funds and all the problems with theexisting mechanism of China’s charity development, affecting to some extent people’s trust inthe charitable organizations and the enthusiasm for charitable donations. In this context, manyissues in the development course of China’s modern charity represented by China CharityFederation are worthy of study and discussion. I myself are mainly concerned with thefollowing three questions: the personal motives of charity and the awakening of moderncharity in China, the causes for the crisis of confidence and the development plight faced bythe charitable organizations, and influence inserted by the development differences of thecharitable organizations on the development structure of modern charity in China.This paper shall focus on the study and analysis of the origin of and difficulties faced bythe development of modern charity in China and policies for enhancing its development,mainly from the perspectives of sociology, political science, religion, law and economics, aswell as from the course of development of China Charity Federation in the past17years. Thestudy of this subject has a great significance for the benign development of the families, thesociety and the State. The development of charity and the relief to the poor are not onlyimportant measures to resolve the contradictions of polarization between the rich and the poorof China in the process of developing a market economy so as to avoid large-scale social unrest, but also an important content in carrying forward the Chinese nation’s fine traditionsand enhancing people’s ethical standards.The first part of this paper sorts out the related theories and concepts, pointing out thatthe development of modern charity in China is conducive to resolution of social conflicts andthe building of a harmonious society. Different from the first or the second assignment,charity as a voluntary behavior is a hybrid distribution, which is conducive to theestablishment of a just society. It is good to the future and benefits the present. It is stressedthat non-governmental action is the feature of charity. The second part focuses on the study ofancient and modern thought and historical activities of charity. In the historical process of thedevelopment of charity, Chinese local officials and private organizations alternately carriedout the charity work. During the historical period of the Republic of China, charity oncedeveloped to a historic peak, and laid the foundation for the birth of modern charity. After thefounding of New China, along with the establishment of the planned economic system, thetraditional sense of charity was once turned into nursing homes and social welfare institutions,existing in the form of social welfare. With the gradual deepening of the reform of the marketeconomy in China, the increased gap between the rich and the poor brought about by thesocial transition, has consolidated the basis for the formation of modern charity and made it ahistorical necessity. The third part of this paper analyzes the background of social andeconomic environment for the founding of China Charity Federation, and the necessity andurgency for the founding of China Charity Federation, providing a record of the establishmentof China Charity Federation as well as its early history and its organization changes, andrevealing the historical status and role of China’s modern charity. The fourth part analyses thework China Charity Federation has done, by a general review and study of the representingprojects and cases since the establishment of China Charity Federation, featuring the projectconstruction, fundraising, relief management, internal construction and development model ofChina Charity Federation, in two aspects, namely the conventional relief and the suddendisastrous rescue China Charity Federation has done. The fifth part is on the supervision andmanagement of the charity organizations. It discusses the existing problems of modern charity supervision, from the respects of active acceptance of management and passive acceptance ofmanagement, in the three different levels of internal oversight, public scrutiny andgovernment oversight. It is recommended that the basis and standards of modern charity inChina be established, based on the experience of developed countries. The sixth part, based ona comprehensive review of the full text of this paper as well as the many years’ workexperience of the author in China Charity Federation and the historical research engaged bythe author, an overall impression is provided of the development of contemporary Chinesecharity, that is, merits are indelible but confusion still exists. Finally, the direction of futuredevelopment of China’s modern charity is pointed out from a constructive perspective.