The Chinese Law and Politics blog outlines new statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on the number of social organizations and civil society groups:
The official numbers show a steady increase in the numbers of registered Chinese civil society organizations, including 192,000 social organizations (SOs), 161,000 non-governmental, non-commercial enterprises (NGNCE’s), and 1144 foundations. (These numbers differ slightly from those released in January.)
They also reveal an interesting decline in the total numbers of villager committees and residents committees over the past ten years, and a plateau over the past four years in the number of urban residents who are receiving welfare assistance. [Full text]
