Securitizing HIV/AIDS: a game changer in state-societal relations in China?

Lo, Catherine Yuk-ping

3 "Civil society" is often translated as "Minjian shehui", "Shiming Shehui" and "Gongming Shehui" in Chinese. In fact, the three different Chinese terms do not have the same meaning. Many scholars actually use these different Chinese terms of civil society simultaneously. "Minjian shehui" is used in this article because the term is widely used in the academic research in China's modern civil organizations. "Civil society" in this article refers to a sphere that is conceptually separable from the state and government. 4 At the same time the State Council abolished the Jijin guanli banfa stipulated in 1988. 5 The Chinese and English versions of the revised regulation (2016) can be found in Chinalawinfo. "Regulation on Registration and Administration of Social Organizations (2016) (Shehui tuanti dengji guanli tiaoli). 6 Nevertheless, grassroots NGOs registered under the MOIC also encounter problems with regard to the amount and source of funding. As registered commercial entities, grassroots NGOs are required to pay a 5 % tax on any revenue, even for funding received for non-profit purposes. 7 In recent years, the abovementioned legislative hurdle in NGO registration has been relaxed in some parts of China, first in Shenzhen and then in Beijing. The local government in these two cities relaxed its NGO registration rule, and allowed NGOs in the fields of business, charity, welfare, and social services to register directly with the MOCA. Such a move can also be observed at the national level. In early 2011, the national government started planning to revise the regulations on NGO registration and management. If the revised version is passed by the State Council, the individual-organized or grassroots NGOs can directly register with the MOCA without seeking a supervisory body prior to the registration. 8 It is noted that the author is fully aware of the arguments put forward by Timothy Hildebrandt, stating Chinese NGOs could be favored or cracked down by the state apparatus irrespective of registration status. The author is argued that unregistered NGOs are comparatively easier to be targeted and cracked down by the government officials in the name of "unlawful organizations". For Hildebrandt's argument, see Hildebrandt, T. The Political Economy of Social Organization Registration in China. The China Quarterly. 2011;208:970-89. 9 GONGOs are composed of three types of organizations existed in the 1950s and 1960s: (1) private organizations from the "old China"; (2) friendship associations for the promotion of trade, and cultural exchange agencies; and (3) people's organizations and mass organizations. 10 In the course of the meeting, US Vice President Al Gore claimed that HIV/AIDS was a security threat because "It threatens not just individual citizens, but the very institutions that define and defend the character of a society. The disease weakens workforces and saps economic strength. HIV/AIDS strikes at teachers, and denies education to their students. It strikes at the military, and subverts the forces of order and peacekeeping". 11 McInnes and Rushton (2010) argued that the HIV/ AIDS securitization in 2000 was not a successful or complete securitization. However, this article does not intend to examine whether the international HIV/AIDS securitization has been fully accepted by the target audience. It intends to examine the influences of the HIV/ AIDS international securitization on the national and sub-national levels in China. 12 In 2003