Experts urge legal reform and Hong Kong collaboration to advance China's philanthropy sector

Urgent priorities for advancing China’s philanthropy sector include fostering a favourable legal environment and overhauling the nation’s social service industry, according to leading policy experts at a forum in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Mainland charitable organisations could learn from Hong Kong’s experience to increase their professional expertise, while the Greater Bay Area city cluster plan could be leveraged as a catalyst to boost the sector, they said.

The panel discussion – part of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Philanthropy for Better Cities Forum – examined China’s philanthropic landscape, with each speaker outlining their priorities for the sector over the next decade.

“We need to create a more favourable legal and policy environment for the development of charity organisations – that is good laws and sound governance,” Jin Jinping, associate professor at Peking University Law School, told the panel.

Wang Zhenyao, a former senior official who spent more than 22 years at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said Beijing should draw on Hong Kong’s mature philanthropy sector to “drive a major upgrade of the entire social service sector”.

Wang is currently the founding dean of the China Philanthropy Research Institute at Beijing Normal University.