Legislative official calls for tighter regulation of NGOs on security grounds

The spokeswoman for China’s largely rubber-stamp legislature, Fu Ying, said on Wednesday the country needed to better regulate foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to ensure national security and social stability and ensure they had “sufficient legal basis” to operate there, Reuters reported. Beijing began an investigation into the operations of NGOs last year to prepare for tighter regulations as part of a security drive ordered by President Xi Jinping. A bill being considered in the city of Guangzhou requires overseas NGOs to register with, and be approved by, authorities if they want to set up representative offices or operate temporarily.