Charity laws need overhaul
China Daily  Updated: 2005-01-15 07:48

The tsunami disaster has made evident the need for a complete set of charity laws, says a commentary in the Legal Daily. An excerpt follows:

The high-calibre of humanitarian aid and generous donations by Chinese people to tsunami-afflicted countries fully exemplifies our traditional virtue of being a helpful neighbour.

Yet, there are still some out-of-tune notes that assault the ears. A bogus China Charity Federation website and hoax short messages were used to defraud public money under the guise of "tsunami donations." A backlash against these immoral money-making measures was provoked nationwide, and the call for improvements of laws on charitable donations has rung loud and more urgent.

China has long observed the tradition of helping those in danger and relieving those in need, and all able organizations, groups or individuals should make every possible effort to continue this. Such aid not only helps tide the recipient country over a temporary crisis, but more importantly, it helps foster goodwill and stability among nations.

The Chinese Government has laid great store in charitable services. And laws relating to charitable donations and some favourable taxation policies for volunteer contributors do exist. However, as it is no more than 30 years since China's charities embarked on proper development, substantial efforts are required to further their improvement and legislation.

Charitable services, although voluntary, are quite inseparable from a sound legal system. Improved charitable services also need updated legislation, not the laws currently in force which hamper the development of the charity sector.

First, China's present laws and policies are not sufficient to regulate and protect the development of charitable services. There are no complete sets of legal provisions to regulate and evaluate the running of charities, supervisory systems or activities, such as fund raising and aid programmes.

Second, the absence of a well-functioning legal support system has undermined existing jurisprudence.

Third, development of China's charitable organizations goes to extremes. In one direction it is too unconstrained and on the other there is an extreme dependence on government bodies, both of which are equally damaging.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, for the first time in history, granted the charity sector an important status as part of the social security system, and the central government regards it as a strong back-up to social stability. Therefore, legislators should speed up the pace of reform of charities.

Close