Chinese Security Officials Cast Eye on Foreign Nonprofits

Growing wariness among China’s leaders about the activities and influence of Western nonprofit groups appears to have spawned a close investigation of foreign organizations in one Chinese province, according to The New York Times.

A notice that briefly appeared on a local government website in Shanxi Province said a security review of groups based abroad as well as Chinese nonprofits with foreign ties was being conducted from May to July. The notice—posted on June 20 but taken down shortly afterward—said the probe was a response to guidance from China’s new National Security Commission, headed by President Xi Jinping.

One leading Chinese organization that gets foreign funding received three forms with 36 questions, including requests for the names of employees and “cooperating Chinese persons” and for information about the nonprofit’s “political background.” A staffer with another group said recent questioning about its activity and funding was no different from that of past years.

China’s government has tightened scrutiny in recent years of foreign donations to domestic charitable groups.