Growing Up and Going Out: The Development and Internationalization of Chinese NGOs

In this talk, Timothy Hildebrandt will discuss his new book -- Social Organizations and the Authoritarian State in China -- which examines the development of civil society groups in China. His presentation will cover a cross-regional, multi-case study examination of NGOs in three different areas: environmental protection, HIV/AIDS prevention, and gay and lesbian rights. By carefully breaking apart and analyzing the opportunity structure facing Chinese social organizations, the book demonstrates how Chinese NGOs must adapt activities to match the changing interests of local governments. Its comparative approach also provides for important insights into variation across locale and issue area. Dr. Hildebrandt argues how social organizations paradoxically strengthen, rather than weaken, the authoritarian regime in China. In this talk, he will also discuss how this particular model of state-society relations might soon be exported to other authoritarian contexts as Chinese NGOs “go out” to the rest of the world.

Guobin Yang, a former Wilson Center Scholar, will draw on his own research into Chinese citizen and NGO activism on the Internet to make comments on Dr. Hildebrandt’s presentation.