The Boston Globe
June 15, 2006

Yu Xiaogang, of Kunming-based Green Watershed, said the intensive probes of many foreign-funded groups launched by the Chinese government might not be bad if they end up convincing the authorities that most NGOs have no ulterior political motives.

Beijing: The Chinese government has launched intensive financial and security probes of many foreign-funded nonprofit groups, according to the organizations. Critics of the audits say the government apparently fears the organizations could destabilize China by mobilizing public opinion against the government’s human rights and environmental policies. Yu Xiaogang, director of Green Watershed, an environmental nonprofit in southern Yunnan Province that receives grants from the Ford Foundation and other US donors and that opposes China’s construction of large-scale dams, said the investigations greatly hampered his organization’s work. "We experienced investigations through almost the whole of last year, and we met with a lot of pressure," Yu said. "Some of our actions were limited by some orders from the government, [ and] for several months we could not legally operate" because the group’s official registration license was not renewed by authorities. … Yu, of Green Watershed, said the recent audits might not be bad if they end up convincing the government that most nonprofits have no ulterior political motives.