Growth of Philanthropy Continues in China, Despite Government Dominance

Leslie Lenkowsky and an Oxfam Volunteer tour the Home of Workers, in Beijing.

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By Leslie Lenkowsky

The Chinese government last month announced it was banning Oxfam, an international network of charities that seeks to end poverty and promote social justice, from recruiting volunteers on Chinese college and university campuses. It said that the group was really a political movement opposed to the government, not a charitable one.

This action was of more than passing interest to me. In January I visited a nonprofit organization on the outskirts of Beijing called the Home of Workers.