CSOs in China also contribute to the country’s overseas humanitarian action. Chinese CSOs have extensive domestic experience dealing with humanitarian emergencies from natural disasters. This knowledge and expertise present Chinese CSOs with an opportunity for a greater role in international humanitarian responses.
Chinese CSOs have extensive domestic experience dealing with humanitarian emergencies from natural disasters.
There are a number of recent examples of Chinese CSOs expanding their activities at home and abroad. The Nepal earthquake in April 2015 was a pivotal moment for Chinese CSOs. The earthquake triggered the largest disaster relief operation organized by the Chinese government on foreign soil, with active participation from Chinese CSOs. In addition to providing relief materials, many Chinese organizations deployed aid workers to Nepal and participated extensively in post-disaster reconstruction. According to researcher Lin Peng, there are two reasons for this shift in approach: China’s existing economic diplomacy in Nepal; and the Chinese government’s history of cooperation with the Nepalese government and UN agencies in the country.
The government-affiliated China Red Cross Foundation provides relief to displaced populations from Myanmar in China’s Yunnan and Guanxi provinces, drawing from its experience responding to natural disasters. Meanwhile, overseas, the China Red Cross Foundation provides medical aid in partner countries – an example is the establishment of two mobile hospitals in Syria and Iraq. At the time of writing, the China Red Cross Foundation does not implement projects overseas that focus on refugees, given the topic’s political sensitivity and the government’s priorities. On the possibility of future overseas activities for refugee relief, an interviewee highlighted that the organization would follow the government’s position and would need to find an appropriate angle from which to engage on the issue, in order to focus on humanitarianism rather than civil and political issues.
In refugee situations, overseas involvement of Chinese CSOs is indeed more limited, but there are some examples. In a pilot project in 2018, Chinese non-governmental organization (NGO) China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) and US-headquartered Mercy Corps jointly launched the Bright Future Program in the Palabek Refugee Settlement in Lamwo district of northern Uganda to support urgent needs and the self-reliance of South Sudanese refugees through farming, agriculture and youth-led business. Mercy Corps led the design and set-up of the programming and CFPA seconded two officers to the Mercy Corps Uganda team to co-implement activities. Funding came from a Chinese entrepreneur interested in supporting the partnership and conformed to Mercy Corps standards for monitoring and reporting. Trust in the relationship between the two organizations was of key importance for the project’s success, with CFPA learning from Mercy Corps in this new issue area. This is a relatively new and innovative form of partnership between international and Chinese NGOs working together and funded by a third party.
However, an interviewee noted that it remains difficult to find donors interested in replicating this model, and this is becoming increasingly challenging due to geopolitical tensions between Western countries and China. An interview with an official at the EU Delegation to China confirmed that rising tensions between China and the EU risked disincentivizing collaboration on international development programming. Financial sustainability has been a consistent challenge for most Chinese NGOs because it is difficult to raise funds and access government funding pools, such as the SSCAF. As the Chinese government broadens its collaboration with UN agencies and foreign governments, there is a risk of overlooking Chinese civil society as an avenue for humanitarian aid. Another interviewee from an international humanitarian organization noted the preliminary need for a robust relationship with the Chinese government, before relationships with other actors in China could grow.
