2015年CRI NPC Considers Law Aimed at Charity Transparency

Top legislators in China are mulling over the country's first ever charity law, in an effort to increase transparency.

A draft being discussed by the National People's Congress would require charities to publicize clear information on their operations.

It says such information should be released at least once every three months.

Liu Zhenlai, one of the delegates to the top legislature, said such regulation is in accordance to increasing social demand.

"The public is concerned about the donation amount, how the donations are used and its efficiency and whether the donations really benefit people. Corruption 1 and misconduct in charity have blown the reputation of charity career and had a bad influence in the society. Therefore I propose to emphasize the regulation of the charity behavior and fundraising, ensure transparency in charity and the public's supervision 2 on charity," said Liu.

The charity sector 3 in China has developed rapidly in the past decade, with the amount of donations ten times that of 10 years ago.

The sector has also been boosted by the Internet and the popularization of social media in recent years.

It's been reported that last August, posts on social media platforms about the Ice Bucket Challenge were read 4.5 billion times here in China, with some 8 million yuan, or 1.2 million US dollars being raised.

Lawmakers at the NPC session also believe that with the spread of online donation platforms, special stipulation 4 on online fundraising is also necessary.

NPC delegate Sun Baoshu is one of them.

"The current draft mainly regulates and supervised the formal charity organizations, activities and trust with charity aims, which is relatively 5 narrow in legislation. Actually charity is diversified 6. A lot of informal charity organizations and activities exist in daily life, for example the online charity activities and some unregistered micro charity groups. So we should add the new content into the charity law," said Sun.

Social concerns on charity fraud have become a media highlight after a recent case in east China's Anhui Province.

A local resident in Anhui, named Li Juan was seriously bitten by a dog in a kennel 7 owned by her boyfriend, Zhang Hongyu.

However, Zhang falsely claimed on the Internet that Li was hurt when trying to save a girl from dogs and raised about 800,000 yuan in donations.

Later, media investigations 8 exposed the fraud and police detained Zhang.

NPC delegate Li Andong suggested that harsher punishment should also be included in the charity law.

"This case is not individual and similar cases happen now and again. In order to improve the charity environment, we should prohibit and punish such donation cheat behaviors. The current charity draft has included some regulations but not in focus. So I suggest clearly defining and providing this in the law," Li said.

The draft under-debate also includes provisions to guarantee volunteer rights and ensure that charity groups, donors 9 and beneficiaries enjoy taxation 10 favors.

According to official numbers, China has nearly 3,000 registered nonprofit groups that manage charitable donations as of the end of 2012, up nearly 16 percent year on year.