Govt should set an example in charity

Despite the successes that the Chinese economic development model has achieved over the last 30 years, one area - among others - seems to lag behind: that is, the charity sector. I believe that some of the reasons for this are to be attributed to a slow development of civil society in China, general public mistrust in certain organizations and certain individuals, and the lack of a clear government policy and legislation on the matter.

On the latter point, it is true that outsourcing private "charitable" initiatives to private citizens deprives the government of the required control and monitoring functions on the sector and may create social and geographical imbalances, whereby some areas are the target of certain charitable initiatives while some others are not, and some charitable initiatives are pursued while others are not.

In the West, at least, historically, countries had largely outsourced charity activities to religious organizations, mostly the Catholic Church, which over the centuries has helped channel donations from the rich to the needy, both in their home countries and abroad. No matter how many cases of corruption, fund misuse and other inefficiencies, the net effect has been positive.