Since the 1980s, the Chinese state has gradually withdrawn from a burgeoning market economy, creating space for a numerical growth of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As a result, in the course of nearly three decades, approximately 387,000 of cially registered NGOs, alongside an estimated greater number of unregistered ones, had emerged by 2007. The numerical increase of NGOs has, to a great extent, mirrored the rising social challenges that have been caused in part by economic liberalization-with problems ranging from environmental damages to unsafe foods becoming an everyday reality that NGOs have sought to address.