The asia fundation

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OVERVIEW

The Asia Foundation’s China program supports legal development, local governance reform, non-profit sector growth, the rights of women, and constructive U.S.-China relations.

The Asia Foundation in China supports civil society organizations and government institutions to enhance popular empowerment while increasing government accountability. Through financial support, professional training, and technical assistance, The Asia Foundation supports legal reform, improved governance, development of the non-profit sector, and women’s rights and opportunities. Given China’s importance on the world stage, the Foundation also works to facilitate a more mature, stable, and normal China-U.S. bilateral relationship.

LEGAL REFORM
The Asia Foundation’s legal reform program focuses on legal aid and administrative law reform. The Foundation has provided operational, staff training, and public legal education grants on a matching basis to legal aid centers in Guizhou, Shanxi, Yunnan, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang. An earlier grant to the National Legal Aid Center was a critical factor in the development of a special TV series, “Talking about Law Today,” which enjoys widespread popularity. The Foundation conducted an ambitious WTO Administrative Law Compliance Training program, in cooperation with the State Council’s Legislative Affairs Office. Through this program, every provincial Legislative Affairs Office in the country received specialized training in WTO principles and the application of uniformity, transparency, and impartial review. The Foundation also granted support to a network of scholars and officials from the National People’s Congress (NPC) to research and draft an Administrative Procedure Law for China.

LOCAL GOVERNANCE REFORM
The Asia Foundation’s local governance reform programs include training of elected Village Committee chairpersons and grassroots officials. The Foundation and the China Society Press are cooperating in the production of a series of 18 handbooks and manuals for improved village and township governance targeted at local officials. Another major Foundation effort is designed to encourage more public - private cooperation in developing and delivering community-based social services, with a current emphasis on local public finance. Under China’s decentralization efforts of the past several decades, many basic services are now the responsibility of local-level government units. In the countryside, this development has resulted in a financial crisis for government units and village organizations, with a discernable growing gap between rural cadres and peasants. Rural discontent is clearly widespread and chronic. Under a grant from the Hewlett Foundation, the Foundation is working with local partners to carry out two complementary research projects: one to delineate the current governance and administrative structure linking the villages to the townships, and the second to understand existing mechanisms for public participation and conflict management. The results of the research have provided baseline information from which the Foundation and its local partners are planning three-tiered pilot activities to facilitate interactions between township leaders and villagers in the land planning process, publicize and disseminate budget information to villagers, and increase consultation on public finance.

NON-PROFIT SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
Given increasing economic liberalization and growing pressures on Chinese society, The Asia Foundation continues to strengthen and expand its efforts to assist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs). The Foundation has supported the NGO Forum in its efforts to build networks, information exchange mechanisms, and issue coalitions among Chinese NGOs. The Foundation also works to equip NGOs and CBOs with increased capacity to manage conflict. In 2002, the Foundation assisted NGO projects in Kunming and in Dalian focused on conflict management.

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION
In the past several years, The Asia Foundation has focused on the rights and roles of working women in China, supporting a series of distinctive and ground-breaking activities to provide services to migrant women workers, in addition to supporting policy reform dialogues on the rights of women workers. Grants to three different migrant working women service projects in the Pearl River Delta have enabled those workers to access health, educational, personal counseling, and legal aid services on an expanded scale. The Foundation intends to build on these programs by organizing and supporting the development of new worker-friendly labor rights and labor law educational and awareness materials. The Foundation has initiated efforts to take the lessons learned from its Pearl River Delta projects to implement a major new nationwide initiative in worker protection and labor rights education.

IMPROVING CHINA-U.S. RELATIONS
The focus of The Asia Foundation’s efforts to contribute to U.S. bilateral relations with China continues to be through exchanges and dialogues. In 2002, the Foundation managed four new Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Fellows in year-long academic programs, as well as its second L.Z. Yuan Fellow in media and foreign affairs and its ongoing U.S. observation program for junior diplomats focusing on the domestic determinants of foreign policy. In addition to these ongoing exchanges, the Foundation started a new series of short-term study tours for Distinguished Senior Foreign Affairs Visitors. In addition, the Foundation has helped organize and manage eight U.S.-China-Japan trilateral meetings, providing an important forum for private discussions among policymakers and experts from the three countries.

HONG KONG INITIATIVE
In the past two years, The Asia Foundation has successfully managed a series of single-topic projects including sustainable transport policy, cleaner fuels and vehicles, and new economy human resource development. The goal of the program is to encourage more productive public policy dialogues among diverse stakeholders. In 2002, the Foundation’s Cleaner Fuels and Vehicles study project was completed, while the sustainable transport policy research project funded by the Mass Transit Railway Corporation came to a successful conclusion with a variety of public events and Foundation-sponsored dialogues. Under the guidance of its Hong Kong Leadership Council, the Foundation is now focused on development of the non-profit sector and donor community in Hong Kong, with an emphasis on capacity building, the legal and regulatory framework, financial sustainability, and enhanced NPO transparency.

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CONTACT

The Asia Foundation
Suite 1905 Building No.1,
Henderson Center
18 Jianguomennei Avenue
Beijing 100005, China

Tel: (86-10) 65183868
Fax: (86-10) 65183869

Zhang Ye, China Country Director

Email:beijing@asiafound.org.cn

http://www.asiafoundation.org

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2003 PROJECTS

Governance, Law, and Civil Society

China Foundation for International & Strategic Studies
Planning and convening a conference on crisis management in China-U.S. security

China NPO Network
Continuing support for the second series of NPO Forums focusing on core legal, organizational, and program issues of the non-profit sector in China

China Society Press
Publication of the second six-volume series of practical legal training handbooks and materials for the Village Committee Chairperson and relevant local level officials

China University of Politics and Law
Criminal law legal aid and legal education activities

China-U.S. Judicial Exchange
Support for United States Circuit Judge Clifford Wallace to attend a program of meetings and to make presentations on administrative law, court administration, and judicial training topics, including a presentation at the National Judges College in Beijing

Hong Kong Core Mission Workshop
Planning and development of a program of research, dialogue, and action to strengthen private philanthropy and develop a more self-reliant non-profit sector in Hong Kong including a three-day workshop with Hong Kong and international interlocutors

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Legal Aid Center
Expanded legal aid development and operations in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Legislative Affairs Office, State Council
Partial support for a 15-day traveling program of observation and consultation on World Trade Organization (WTO) legal compliance and administrative law in selected cities in U.S. for two groups of provincial and central government Legislative Affairs Officials; Partial support of the participation of a delegation of 40 provincial and central Legislative Affairs Officers in a workshop in Hong Kong to discuss issues related to compliance with WTO rules from a resource team comprised of U.S. local trade and legal experts

Lubman, Stanley - Professor, University of California at Berkeley Law School
Continuing support for China law program consultancy and advisory services

Ministry of Agriculture, Research Center for Rural Economy
Applied research project on local governance administrative reform and conflict prevention in rural China

Nanjing University, Law School, Legal Aid Center
Improving the quality of legal aid services provided by the Center in Anhui and Northern Jiangsu

National School of Administration
Three-day domestic conference in Beijing to review and discuss China’s draft Administrative Procedure Act, with 30 Chinese participants

Peking University, Department of Sociology
Study on community participation and conflict prevention mechanisms in rural China

Peking University, Law School
Translation of the draft of the Chinese Administrative Procedure Law and the comments on that law provided by Chinese administrative law scholars

Peking University, Law School - Center for the Study of People’s Congress and Foreign Legislatures
Partial support for the second part of the applied research project on Judicial Independence and Judicial Accountability in China to be conducted collaboratively by the Peking University Law School and the University of California, Los Angeles Law School

Shanghai YMCA
Comprehensive community-based project for adolescents, elderly, volunteers, and laid-off workers in Luoshan, Weifang and Square Community Service Centers in Shanghai

Shanxi Provincial Legal Aid Center
Legal aid development and operations in prefectures, counties, and districts in Shanxi Province

Sichuan University Law School, Legal Aid Center
Improving the quality of legal aid services, especially in the areas of constitutional law and labor law, provided by the Center

WTO Phase II Legal Compliance Program
Services, led by Stanley Lubman, for a 15-day traveling program of observation and consultation on WTO legal compliance and administrative law in U.S. for two groups of provincial and central government Legislative Affairs Officials; Interpretering services; Program facilitation services

WTO Phase II Legal Compliance Program - Hong Kong
Support for two staff members of Legislative Affairs Office to make presentations and consult with Hong Kong business leaders on WTO legal compliance issues

WTO Phase III Legal Compliance Program
Program facilitation services for a workshop in Hong Kong to enable local Legislative Affairs Officials to address problems they have faced in meeting WTO obligations within their jurisdictions after the completion of the Phase I and Phase II programs; Assistance by Stanley Lubman

WTO Phase III Legal Compliance Program
Support for the Vice Minister of the Legislative Affairs Office to join the opening plenary session and attend part of the workshop on China’s Legal System and Mechanisms to ensure WTO Compliance

The People’s Government of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Justice Bureau
Mediation training and development of a program
to improve dispute resolution methods in Xinjiang, with a particular emphasis on Uighur and Muslim minority concerns

Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Legal Aid Center
Three-part legal aid staff development project in Xinjiang, including: translation into Uighur, publication, and distribution of a handbook; Study and observation tours of legal aid centers elsewhere in China; Two separate five-day training courses for approximately 100 prefecture, county, and city legal aid center directors in Xinjiang

Yunnan Provincial Legal Aid Center
Expanded legal aid development and operations in Yunnan Province

Development Research Center, State Council
Consultancy and coordination services for field research and pilot projects on conflict prevention in rural village-township public finance, administration, and basic level governance

Zhengzhou University, Law School
Legal aid program titled, “Citizens Suing the Government,” which helps the citizens in Henan Province to protect their legal rights and interests and also facilitates the legal education of the Zhengzhou University law students who intend to specialize in constitutional and administrative law

Women's Programs

Guangdong Provincial Labor Union
Project to conduct pilot occupational health and safety training for migrant women workers in non-state enterprises in two factories in Nanhai District of Foshan City in the Pearl River Delta

Guangdong Women Cadre Training School
Expanding and improving training, education, and counseling projects for migrant women workers; Expanding and improving the migrant women workers HIV/AIDS and STD Education Project

Guangdong Women’s Federation, Women’s Rights Department
Continued support for the fourth phase legal aid and education project services in Guangdong to aid migrant women workers and women workers with economic difficulties; Additional support for HIV/AIDS and STD Education for migrant women workers

Qianxi Sisters Health Promotion Association
Innovative program to promote primary rural health-care awareness and knowledge among rural women in Hebei Province

State Council of PRC, Development Research Center
Support for a research program on current welfare provisions for Chinese workers in enterprises with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) leading to policy recommendations for government and business

Workshop on Direct Labour Service Programs
Sponsorship of a two-day workshop in Guangzhou to exchange information and discuss strategies and options for direct project activities to improve workers’ conditions in China; Support for a program facilitator; Support for a rapporteur to prepare a workshop summary report

Zhongshan University, Guangdong Development Research Institute
Research and planning project on primary education for migrant families’ children in Guangzhou City

Economic Reform and Development

Tsang, Frank / Civil Service Bureau - Government Secretariat, HKSAR
First ALINE (Accelerated Leadership In the New Economy) Executive Fellowship Pilot Program in Beijing, a one-week program to provide company mentorship, meet different global entrepreneurial models, and build understanding in Beijing’s
information communication technology innovation, philosophy, and culture

International Relations

Aspen Institute
Annual congressional conference on China held in Hawaii, topics including: new leadership, prospects for political reform in China, Taiwan and U.S.-China relations, WTO, and trade and U.S.-China relations

China Youth Daily
One-year scholarship for the fourth recipient of the Foundation’s LZ Yuan Fellowship in Media and Foreign Affairs, including one academic year at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, followed by a one-month internship program and meetings with policy and media practitioners

Hopkins-Nanjing Center
Costs associated with the Center shifting its location for the fall semester of the 2003/4 academic year from Nanjing to Hawaii as a precautionary measure against SARS

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)
Support for eight one-year Master of Arts Degree
fellowships at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; International Public Policy Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University as well as International Policy and Practice Program at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University; Support for a six-member delegation’s observation tour in the U.S. on the electoral process in the U.S. Congress and its influence on U.S. foreign policy; Third Distinguished Visiting Fellow observation tour in the U.S. to strengthen China-U.S. relations through dialogue between Chinese and Americans on issues relevant to the bilateral relationship

Peking University, Research Centre for Volunteering and Welfare
Costs associated with hosting the third Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research in Beijing

Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress
Support for a law specialist from China to participate in the panel “Asian Perspectives: Legal Reform in Asia in U.S.” to share her views about the contemporary state of legal reform in China with representatives from various sectors in Washington, New York, and San Francisco

Xinhua News Agency
One-year scholarship for the third recipient of the Foundation’s LZ Yuan Fellowship in Media and Foreign Affairs, including a Master of Arts program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a four to six-week observation tour and meetings with policy and media practitioner

Other

Books for Asia
Distribution of 150,000 donated books and journals to more than 400 universities and colleges throughout China, with support from the China Ministry of Education

Additional Programs
Professional services to prepare summary on post-9/11 philanthropy actions as basis of comparison with Hong Kong SARS-related philanthropy response; Consultancy and advisory services to develop labor rights education and legal services for workers program plan