China’s Communist Leaders Tighten Grip on Activist Groups

Independent civic organizations in China are coming under increasing constraints as the government under President Xi Jinping moves to narrow the bounds of acceptable activism, The New York Times writes.

While the ruling Communist Party has allowed the growth of grass-roots charities that fill gaps in providing social services, it is clamping down on groups involved in politically contentious issues such as labor rights and discrimination against people with AIDS. viewing such organizations as potential havens for dissent.

The government has moved against several groups in recent months in what nonprofit leaders describe as a campaign of harassment by police and regulatory agencies. “The pressure on grass-roots organizations has never been this intense,” said Zhang Zhiru, who heads a workers’ rights group in the southern manufacturing city of Shenzhen.