THE AUTONOMY OF CHARITIES IN CHINA

The Charity Law, which was promulgated in 2016, creates a public law-private law hybrid model for the regulation of charities in China. The incorporation of private law norms into the new legislative framework demonstrates the state's willingness to confer greater autonomy on charitable actors with regard to determining how their assets can be utilised for charitable purposes. This article analyses the associated post-2016 regulatory framework and outlines the extent to which private actors can voluntarily engage in charitable activities after the passage of the new charity law. It also reports the way in which the new regulatory framework has been implemented in practice based on data collected through semi-structured interviews. Observations associated with regulatory practices suggest that the political philosophy underlying the new regulatory framework remains unchanged: strict government control remains predominant, and the scope for private actors to exercise their management rights is still considerably limited.