A Study On The Development Of Non - Governmental Organizations In Ethnic Areas Of China

At present, our Chinese society is undergoing transformation. Since the 1980s, with the deepening of reform and opening up, great and profound changes have taken place in every aspect of our society. Meanwhile, the governance structure of the coutry and the society and their relationship have also changed tremendously. China now is in the transient period in terms of its social governance structure. The conventional structure of "strong nation VS weak society" has been transformed gradually. Today, all kinds of social organizations are playing important parts in every aspect of our society, and their role in social governance are growing and indispensible.In recent years, NGOs have become a research field of growing interest by Chinese acadamia. Popular research topics include the transformation of nation-society governance relation, power, efficiency and social fairness during the social transformation. However, there is little attention to social organizations in ethnic minority areas of our country. These grass-root NGOs, whichare set up from bottom to top, remain an important part of China’s social organizations. On one hand, they have sprung up like mushrooms in recent years. On the other, due to complex reasons, they face difficulties in the outside and bottlenecks in their ownorganizational development.Therefore, theirdevelopment, predicament and difficultiesdeserve great attention fromall walks of society. This paper tries to reveal the development of NGOs in China’s minority areas with a case study of Sanchuan Development Association (三川发展促进会) in Qinghai province.In an era of globalization, NGOs in minority areas play the dual role of promoting social progress and stimulating economic and social development. Since itsfoundation, Jinsanchuan Cultural Center(金三川文化中心) has coordinated many social development projects of Eurasia Foundation in Haidong Disctrict, Qinghai with the help of Qinghai NGO Resource Center. Those projects are aimed at personnel training and capacity building of grass-root NGOs in Haidong Disctrict and other parts of Qinghai, and they are exemplary. However, whether it’s Sanchuan Development Association which has been canceled or Jinsanchuan Cultural Center, most of the project funding comes from foreign embassies, international friends and overseas foundations. Undoubetedly, the usage of the funding must be supervised or monitored by relevant departments of our country at all levels. Recently, China takes stringent and precautious measures on the funding of overseas foundationsto social organizations in China. As is known to all, some ethnic and regilious issues in China’s minority areas and its western frontier regions are very politically sensitive. This puts mounting pressure on the NGOswith a heavy financial dependence on overseas foundations, such as Jinsanchuan Cultural Center. Therefore, for better development of NGOs in ethnic minorities, the following should be done. First of all, the NGOsshould ensure stable real economy as their basis or adequate fund supply. Funding channels should be diversified and crowdfunding is welcome. Second, the society shouldcreate a good atmosphere that advocatespublic welfare. In addition, the Government should further improve the legislation of laws and regulations thatsteadily encourage NGOs to participate in social governance.