Distinguished guests and dear friends,

Today, 2023 China Charity Forum is grandly held in the beautiful city of Nantong. On behalf of China Charity Federation, I hereby would like to extend my warm welcome and sincere greetings to colleagues attending this forum. I would like to express my high respect and heartfelt gratitude to the leaders of communist party and government in Jiangsu province and Nantong city, as well as the colleagues of the provincial and municipal charity federations, who have provided strong support and careful arrangement for the hosting of this forum!

This China Charity Forum is the 5^th event organized by China Charity Federation in collaboration with local charity federations. Each session of forum not only builds a platform for local charity federations to strengthen communication and cooperation but also creates a good opportunity for exchanging ideas, deepening cooperation and seeking common development in the field of public welfare and charity across the country. It has played a positive role in promoting high-quality development of charity with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

It is of great significance for this forum being held in Nantong city, Jiangsu province. Nantong city is the native place of famous patriotic entrepreneur and philanthropist Zhang Jian. During General Secretary Xi Jinping’s investigation in Jiangsu, he came specifically to the Nantong Museum founded by Zhang Jian and gave high praise to Zhang Jian's deeds in promoting industry, education and public welfare charity by praising Zhang Jian as a “model for Chinese private entrepreneurs” and called on the whole society to inherit and promote Zhang Jian’s excellent qualities such as patriotism, practical work and social responsibility. There is also the first national level museum themed charity, i. e. China Charity Museum, sponsored by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Nantong city. In September 2021, Nantong Municipal Party Committee and Government proposed to build Nantong into a nationally renowned "Charity City" with "Everyone Participating and Sharing with Warm Love and Good Deeds". This forum is not only a platform for theoretical discussion and exchange of experience in the field of public welfare and charity work nationwide, but also a model displaying Nantong as a Charity City. I will share some experiences with you on the topic of Rule of Law is the Only Way for the High-Quality Development of Charity with Chinese Characteristics about the theme of this forum.

　I. Legal governance of charity is the foundation and guarantee for high-quality development of charity with Chinese characteristics

Law is the key tool to governing a country and good law is the prerequisite for good governance. In recent years, the communist party and the country have attached great importance to the construction of the rule of law in the field of charity. From the first comprehensive policy document issued by the State Council in 2014 to promote the healthy development of charity, the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Charity to the promulgation and implementation of the Charity Law in 2016 and to the nearly 20 supporting policies issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and other relevant departments, over 400 supporting regulations, rules and normative documents were issued by the central and local governments. The legal system for charity has initially formed and China’s charity industry has entered a new era of rule of law and good governance. Long term practice has shown that strengthening the construction of the rule of law in the field of charity, improving the legal system of charity and adhering to the path of governing good according to law, doing good according to law and promoting good according to law are important guarantees for the sound, fast and high-quality development of charity with Chinese characteristics.

Firstly, legal governance of charity can provide fundamental institutional guarantees for the high-quality development of charitable causes. The essence of modern rule of law lies in establishing good laws and seeking good governance. In 2016, the National People's Congress passed the Charity Law with a high vote of 92.2% in favor, which has expanded the field and scope of charitable activities legally, clarified the rights and obligations of charitable organizations, standardized specific issues such as charitable fundraising and donations that are of general concern to society, established a charitable trust system, proposed policy guidance for the government to promote the development of charitable undertakings and established a comprehensive regulatory system that integrates government supervision, social supervision and industry self-discipline, preliminarily constructing a basic system in the field of charity in China, the legislative intention of strengthening the top-level design of the charity system, regulating charitable activities, promoting the development of charity and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of all parties has been achieved. It can be said that the Charity Law is the first fundamental and comprehensive law in the development process of China's charity industry as well as an important milestone in the construction of China's charity legal system. It not only elevates communist party's advocacy for vigorously developing charity into the will of the country and the people in accordance with legal procedures, but also provides a legal basis for China’s traditional charity to move towards modern charity and rule of law charity and plays an important role in promoting the legalization, standardization and specialization of charity industry, providing fundamental institutional guarantees for the high-quality development of charity in the new era.

Secondly, legal governance of charity can provide stable social expectations for the high-quality development of charity. Secretary General Xi Jinping has pointed out that the national governance system and governance capacity are the concentrated reflection of a country's system and institutional execution capacity. The core essence of national governance lies in the governance of institutions and the central issue of modernization of national governance is the dialectical unity of system and governance. From the perspective of the development laws of human society, the modernization process of countries around the world is gradually moving from "rule of man" to "rule of law". The fundamental reason why "rule of law" is superior to "rule of man" is that the rule of law is "rule of rules", that is, through established objective rules, rather than relying solely on individual subjective will, power, or authority to unite people, regulate society and promote development.

It can be said that legal governance of charity is the most reliable and stable governance, which can provide a reliable institutional environment and stable development expectations for various social undertakings, including charity. In China, the development of charity not only requires strengthening the comprehensive leadership of the communist party and increasing government support but also needs to provide a stable, standardized, systematic and coordinated institutional system for charitable organizations, donors, beneficiaries, trust participants, information platforms and volunteers to participate in charity activities on the track of the rule of law, effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of all parties involved in charity activities, stimulate the vitality of all sectors of society to devote themselves to charity and thus achieve high-quality development of Chinese characteristic charity. Adhering to legal governance of charity and achieving good governance with good law provide the most reliable and stable institutional guarantee for the development of charity, promoting charity culture, regulating charity activities, promoting social progress, sharing development achievements and promoting common prosperity. It is an inevitable choice in the field of charity work to transform China's institutional advantages into governance efficiency, achieve the “governance of China” with Chinese characteristics and promote the high-quality development of charity with Chinese characteristics.

Thirdly, legal governance of charity can provide long-term innovative impetus for the high-quality development of charity. From the common characteristics and general laws of modernization in various countries, any country that successfully realizes economic and social modernization is the one that promotes changes in production relations, promotes social division of labor, coordinates the rights and obligations of all parties and achieves innovative development through the power of the rule of law. In the field of charity, legal governance is also a prerequisite and foundation for the innovative development of charity. On the one hand, in an environment where there must be laws to go by and the laws must be observed, the foundation of charity can be better consolidated to effectively curb behaviors which are harmful to the credibility of charity such as "promise but not donate", "fraudulent donation" and "cheat donation" and fully stimulate the positive energy of all sectors of society to participate in charity. On the other hand, within the institutional framework of laws and regulations, the forms and contents of charitable activities will be more diverse, flexible and efficient and some new means, carriers and channels will emerge to promote the stable and sustainable development of charity. Especially with the vigorous development of digital technologies such as the Internet, big data, 5G, artificial intelligence and blockchain, the expression forms of public welfare charity have further enriched, the spatial and temporal pattern of charity activities has further expanded, the threshold for participation in charity has further lowered, the main parties are increasingly differentiated and their respective rights and obligations are becoming increasingly complex. Without effective coordination, reasonable positioning and legal governance for participating in charity activities in the network era, China’s Internet charity cannot be thriving, let alone achieve such impressive results. In recent years, 30 Internet public fundraising platforms designated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs have been used to raise donation with the annual growth rate of donations raised by charitable organizations has remained around 20%. In 2021, nearly RMB 10 billion yuan of donations were raised. As of November 2022, more than 51 billion people have participated in public welfare charity activities, raising RMB 35 billion yuan. Internet charity has not only grown into a key force in reshaping the development pattern of China’s charity industry, it has also become an important force in promoting the high-quality development of charity with Chinese characteristics.

　　II. Revising the Charity Law is a rare opportunity for promoting high-quality development of charitable undertakings through legal governance and good governance

Since the promulgation and implementation of the Charity Law, it has played a crucial role in promoting the high-quality development of charity in China. Along with China’s new journey towards building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, the communist party and the country have further deepened their understanding of the important role of charity in the overall situation of Chinese path to modernization. The development of charity faces many new situations and new issues and calls from all walks of life to revise the Charity Law are growing. Secretary General Xi Jinping has repeatedly issued important instructions and decisions on the construction of the rule of law in social security, including the revision of the Charity Law, pointing out the direction for comprehensively strengthening the rule of law in the field of charity. In 2020, the NPC Standing Committee conducted an inspection of the enforcement of the Charity Law and the revision of the Charity Law was officially launched in 2021. At the end of 2022, the revised draft of the Charity Law was submitted for the first time to the NPC Standing Committee for review. It is expected to be resubmitted for review within this year and officially introduced next year.

The first is that revision of the Charity Law is of necessity to promote charitable undertakings to better serve the overall work of the communist party and the country. Entering the new era, a series of major decisions and deployments has been made by the Communist Party and the Country for the development of charity. It was emphasized at the 19^th CPC National Congress that systems such as social assistance, social welfare, charity and preferential treatment and resettlement should be improved and charity was clearly identified as an important component of China's multi-level social security system. It was proposed by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19^th CPC Central Committee for the first time that attaching importance to the role of the third distribution and developing social public welfare undertakings such as charity, elevating charity undertakings to the height of adhering to and improving the socialist basic economic system, promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. It was required by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19^th CPC Central Committee that the third distribution role be played, charity undertakings be developed, and the distribution pattern of income and wealth be improved and charity undertakings be regarded as an important way to promote common prosperity. It was further pointed out in the 20^th CPC National Congress that the construction of a coordinated and supporting system for initial distribution, redistribution and third distribution, guiding and supporting willing and capable enterprises, social organizations and individuals to actively participate in public welfare and charitable undertakings and making clear arrangements for the development of charitable undertakings as an important measure to improve the distribution system.

The second is that revision of the Charity Law is necessary to address prominent issues in the field of charity and promote the modernization of charitable governance. In recent years, while China's charity industry has been continuously and healthily developing, it has also faced some new situations and problems, which are mainly shown as follows: slow development of charity organizations; the development of charity industry is not yet compatible with the level of economic and social development; the total amount of charitable donations is relatively low and the growth rate is slowing down, which does not match the level of wealth accumulation in China's society; the development of charity industry is imbalanced and insufficient and the governance capacity and level need to be improved; there is lack of preferential policies for charitable trusts and slow development; there is insufficient and excessive regulation coexisting, the regulatory system and mechanism need to be strengthened and the regulatory methods need to be optimized; the support and promotion measures are relatively principled and not fully implemented; the emergency charity system is not yet sound and the role of charity in responding to emergencies is not fully played; there are lack of effective legal norms for innovative forms of charity, such as online personal assistance, which has generated some negative effects while exerting positive energy. All of aforesaid pose new tasks and requirements for strengthening the rule of law construction in the field of charity. Since the first session of the 13^th National People's Congress, more than 100 representatives from 5 delegations have proposed a total of 7 bills to amend the Charity Law and more than 50 suggestions to improve the system and mechanism of charity, fully reflecting the high concern and eager expectations of all sectors of society and people’s representatives. It is an urgent need to improve the level of charitable rule of law construction and promote the modernization of charitable governance by revising the Charity Law and addressing the prominent issues facing the field of charity in China in a targeted manner.

The third is that it is of necessity for the revision of the Charity Law to improve top-level design and lead the high-quality development of charity in the new era. Although charity is a shared value among all humanity, there are many differences between Chinese charity and Western charity in terms of historical evolution, cultural inheritance, social functions, political attributes and development models. To strengthen the rule of law in the field of charity and promote the rule of law is to adhere to the path of charity with Chinese characteristics and actively explore the development path and system design of charity in line with the reality of Chinese path to modernization on the basis of carefully summarizing and absorbing the practical experience and lessons of Chinese charity. By revising the Charity Law, we strive to achieve the goal of "five new items", that is, to reflect the new orientation of charity function, to clarify the leadership of the Communist party on charity work and to further improve the status and role of charity in the overall situation of Chinese path to modernization; responding to the new problems faced by the development of charity, especially regulating and promoting charitable activities in major emergencies, strengthening the supervision of online charity and filling the legal gap for online personal assistance; optimize new measures for promoting charity, reform the mechanism for identifying charitable organizations, lower the threshold for eligibility for public fundraising, improve preferential support measures, establish charitable credit records and incentive systems and stimulate the enthusiasm for charity in the whole society; establish a new mechanism for charitable supervision, clarify the regulatory responsibilities of the government and relevant departments, and strengthen the leadership and coordination mechanisms for charitable undertakings; enrich and improve the new system of charitable trusts, clarify the principles of tax incentives for charitable trusts, strengthen the legal requirements of beneficiaries and supervisors, increase the termination procedures for charitable trusts and strengthen internal governance of charitable trusts. In short, by revising the Charity Law, we aim to systematize and rule by law the charitable concepts, behaviors, systems, models, experiences with Chinese characteristics and elevate them to the top-level institutional design of national charity. This is an urgent need to strengthen the legal foundation of Chinese characteristic charity and lead the stable development of charity in the new era.

III. Leveraging the power of the rule of law and accumulating the momentum of the rule of law to promote the high-quality development of charity with Chinese characteristics

It is essentially a process of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, replacing traditional governance with modern governance, is essentially a process of transforming towards rule of law governance. In the field of charity work, promoting the high-quality development of Chinese characteristic charity is to transform institutional advantages into governance effectiveness within the existing regulatory framework through the rule of law, leveraging the power of the rule of law, and accumulating the momentum of the rule of law, in order to achieve the "rule of China" of charity with Chinese characteristics.

The first is to regard strengthening the leadership of the Communist party as the fundamental principle of governing good governance in accordance with the law. The leadership of the CPC is the essential requirement of Chinese path to modernization. To adhere to the rule of law and promote the high-quality development of charity with Chinese characteristics, we must clearly adhere to the political principles led by communist party building, fully playing the political core role of communist party organizations and comprehensively strengthening the communist party's leadership over charity work. We need to use legal means to achieve the “two full coverage” of the Communist party's organization and work in the field of charity work, ensuring that charity with Chinese characteristics better serves the overall situation of the communist party and the country’s cause and social security work, ensuring that charitable organizations at all levels consistently practice the communist party's purpose of serving the people, respond to the communist party's call in a timely manner and be loyal assistants to the communist and ensure that the charity industry has strong political cohesion and confidence in unity and struggle, forming a thriving force of charity to help promote common prosperity throughout society.

The second is to make stimulating the vitality of charity the fundamental goal of legal governance of charity. At present, there is still a significant gap between the attention paid by the whole society to charity and the positioning and expectations of the central government. The social environment for the development of charity needs to be optimized, and the vitality and potential of all sectors of society to participate in charity still need to be further stimulated. We must adhere to promoting good in accordance with the law, establish a policy orientation that actively promotes the development of charity, further improve comprehensive incentive policies such as taxation, finance and land and establish a system for charitable donations, volunteer service records and credit incentives; we need to find breakthroughs in the rule of law, optimize the regulatory system and mechanism of charity, improve the regulatory concepts and methods of the charity industry, integrate management into services and further stimulate the positive energy of charity hidden in society.

The third is to regard promoting innovative development of charity as the value pursuit of legal governance of charity. To promote the high-quality development of charity with Chinese characteristics on the track of the rule of law, on the one hand, we should adhere to the sublation and take in the essence of traditional charity and give up its dross; on the other hand, we must adhere to the integration of traditional charity and modern charity and promote the innovative development of charity in China; to encourage the professionalization of charitable forces through the rule of law, cultivate more specialized talents in charity project design, online and offline fundraising, charity project management, charity event promotion and facilitate a more professional development path for charity in institutional design; to advance the modernization of charitable means through the rule of law, fully utilize modern technological means such as the Internet, blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence, accelerate the development of fingertip and online charity and improve the efficiency of charitable fundraising and project management level; to boost the diversification of charitable activities by relying on the rule of law thinking, encouraging the development of charitable trusts, focusing on the development of emergency charity, supporting the development of community charity and providing strong endogenous impetus for the high-quality development of charity.

The fourth is to take promoting charity culture with Chinese characteristic as an important part of governing good by law. Charity culture is the externalization of charity spirit and the most fundamental, profound and enduring spiritual force for the development of charity. On the one hand, we need to use legal means to further improve the charity commendation system, establish a coordinated and supporting charity commendation system at all levels of the country, province, city and county, increase the intensity of charity commendation and rewards and stimulate more social forces to devote themselves to charity; on the other hand, we need to promote the promotion of law and the construction of a charity education system. Through the promotion of charitable organizations, charitable figures and charitable deeds, we need to popularize the laws and regulations of charity, so that more and more people can understand, care about, support and voluntarily participate in charity, creating a sunny legal governance and positive social atmosphere for the development of charity.

The fifth is to strengthen internal governance in the charity industry as a fundamental guarantee for legal governance of charity. Charity organizations are the micro entities that promote the high-quality development of charity and the charity industry is an important force in participating in the rule of law and legal governance. We need to reform and improve the registration and recognition system for charitable organizations in the process of governance in accordance with the law, focus on cultivating charitable industry organizations and hub type charitable organizations, promote the formation of a healthy ecological pattern of charitable organizations with clear levels, reasonable distribution, distinct characteristics and clear division of labor, establish a collaborative mechanism for the charitable industry and enhance self-discipline and autonomy levels; we should pay attention to the construction of internal governance capabilities of charitable organizations, optimize the articles of association and internal management regulations, promote innovation in internal management of charitable organizations, improve operational efficiency, reduce operational costs, establish a transparent, efficient and standardized management system and operational mechanism with Chinese characteristics and further enhance the credibility and professional ability of charitable organizations; we need to strengthen the construction of charity professionals, encourage universities to carry out charity education, establish a sound career development channel for the charity industry and enhance the attractiveness and talent cohesion of charity work.

Comrades, there will be a bright future for legal governance of charity but a long way to go. With the high attention of the communist party, our country and the strong support of all sectors of society, charity with Chinese characteristics will be able to further achieve high-quality development in legal governance of charity and make new and greater contributions to comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese path to modernization through our joint efforts! Thank you all!