Third Sector Governance in China: Structure, Process and Relationships

Abstract

Third sector governance is a new term for Chinese people as well as for government officials,2 researchers and grass-roots non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs) leaders. The term is, however, increasingly becoming popular because ‘it is important that NGOs are accountable for their actions’. Given the nature of their organisation and the work, the accountability process and the regulations for its compliance are complex because the NGOs ‘need to be accountable to many different parts of society’ (Watson, 2002). Dr. Yu Keping (2003), one of the scholars who have used ‘governance’ in their political writings, see the term as a means of decision-making process in which public participation should play a very important role.3 Dr. Yu also distinguishes ‘governance’ from ‘government’ on two aspects—from public participation and control perspective (i.e. governance means public participation and government means a small group that controls public), and the location of decision-making (governance is a bottom-up process, i.e. decision-making on the basis of public meetings) (Keping, 2000).