ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways international NGOs (INGOs) in China survived in the relatively law-less period before the introduction of an INGO Law in 2017, comparing and contrasting their strategies with those of domestic grassroots groups in the same era. While for many decades the lack of legal regulations governing INGO activities in China allowed outside groups to pursue a range of issues in cooperation with particular state actors, the INGO Law disrupts the previous status quo. The carefully built trust relationships and resource flows that allowed INGOs to work relatively unencumbered by state oversight have now been replaced by much closer state monitoring and approval systems, substantially constraining the influence of global civil society and its potential to destabilize authoritarian norms and practices.
