July 20, 2009, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the government of Shenzhen, a southern city located in Guangdong Province, signed a contract together, to attempt a reform in Shenzhen on issue of social organization regulation system. According to this contract, some out of date regulations will be broken, and new measures will replace them, some of those are:
a. Try to establish the system for social organizations direct registering to civil affairs department instead of finding a competent business unit first.
b. Give Shenzhen the right to regulate foundations which are located in Shenzhen but have business both inside and outside China.
c. Give Shenzhen civil affairs department the right to accept registration of social organizations that have business all around China.
Many scholars gave this affair a comment, nearly all of them see it as a great progress, saying that it is the strongest action that focus on the reform of social organizations ever before, and a fierce break down of the dual regulation system that acutely dragged the development of social organizations especially trade associations. Mr. Liu, director of Shenzhen civil affairs department, said it is a glory of Shenzhen to attempt the milestone-like reform, because Shenzhen is the district that experiencing the first wave of economy reform, if this attempt success, Shenzhen will be the “first” again, not in economic field, but political field.
Both parts, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Shenzhen government are confident with this attempt, if it is really success, as Mr. Liu hopes, spreads its experience to all China around, it indeed can be said that it is the starting-point of political reform in China.