China's Charity Law 2016: Rethinking the Relationship between the State and the Non-Profit Sector

In 2016, Chinese legislators introduced the first statute dedicated to the Chinese non-profit sector—the Charity Law of the People's Republic of China. This article concentrates on the relationship between the Chinese non-profit sector and the state. By analysing the statute and the newly drafted regulations that will implement it, this article finds evidence that the statute itself clearly intends to lessen state control over non-profits. However, the wording of the draft regulations and their subsequent legal implementation suggest a degree of inconsistency. Therefore, the author argues that the post-2016 legal system tends to follow the graduated control model as the legal reforms are not comprehensive enough to transform the state–non-profit relationship into a civil society model, at least in the short term. In the future, it is strongly recommended that the Charity Law adopts new approaches that accommodate both the graduated control model and the civil society model for actual implementation in Chinese non-profit organisations.