Freedom House Sharing worst practices China piles on During the 1990s there was much discussion in the In early 2016, joining its authoritarian colleagues, major democracies regarding the export of “best prac- China adopted its first formal law meant to regulate tices," meaning the institutions, policies, and ways the country’s rapidly expanding NGO sector. Previous- of doing things that had strengthened democratic ly, foreign NGOs registered as commercial enterprises governance in some of the more successful post-au- and conducted their advocacy work “off the books.” thoritarian societies, especially in Central Europe. Under the new law, foreign NGOs are subject to a se- More recently, modern authoritarian regimes have ries of additional bureaucratic hurdles, some of which turned this concept on its head by sharing their own could seriously impinge on their work. experiences with laws and tactics that have the effect of retarding democratic development. For example, foreign NGOs are now required to join in partnership with a Chinese organization. In practice, Laws restricting the autonomy and funding of NGOs this could make it difficult for NGOs that work on sen- have been widely copied around the world. Many of sitive issues like the rule of law to function, as Chinese the affected countries tolerated civil society activism organizations would be hesitant to join a foreign entity in the period after the Cold War, only to move ina in pursuing such a politically explosive mission. more repressive direction after the most prominent color revolutions alerted incumbent leaders to poten- Moranuer, foreign NGOs will be compelled ti hegister tial threat posed by civic activism. Once Russia had with the police rather than the Ministry of hull Affairs, demonstrated a willingness to adopt legislation and as han! Been the case.” The law gives the police then enforce it, other countries followed suit, first in SWEEp Ing POWEFS Le detiiaiath (Peknet aCUVILES @ Eurasia but subse