China has approved the country’s first ever charity law promoting the culture of giving among the country’s citizens, but not without opposition.
On Wednesday, the National People's Congress voted 2,636 to 131 in favor of passing the law that aims to promote government-regulated charity works during their annual session where the country's 13th Five-Year Plan was also approved, China Daily reported.
"This law is the fundamental and basic law in philanthropy, and lower-level legislation and regulations will be based on it," Chinese Academy of Social Sciences social policy researcher Yang Tuan explained.
Furthermore, the new legislation is the government's response to complaints from companies about not getting enough income tax concessions for their charity works.
The new law, however, only applies to donations with a maximum of 12 percent from the companies' profits.
The legislation covers regulation details on registration and fundraising as well as government oversight of charitable groups in the country.
It also includes details on inspection of internal management among charitable institutions as well as tax benefits for the events they would organize.
Xinhua News noted that the new charity law would make it easier for charity groups to raise funds for their philanthropic activities.
Despite its promising goals, the new regulation is expected to receive opposition from both government officials and members of charity organizations.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Harvard University scholar Edward Cunningham believes that the policy may be a tactic that some countries use to "keep civil society fragmented."
"There's this assumption, these days, that when there are intimate partnerships between private wealth and local government, there necessarily must be something nefarious going on," Cunningham said.
He further explained that opposition from government officials may be because of their tendency to be wary of cultivating ties with wealthy donors due to the intense crackdown on corruption practices under Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration.
China's new charity law is set to take effect in September and assigns the fifth of the month as the country's Charity Day, according to the South China Morning Post.