4. China: Securing local funds for rights

When authoritarian governments want to hobble civil society and human rights activists, a favored strategy is to choke off their funding. Since money often comes from foreign donors, a law to limit access to support from abroad can hit activists hard. In China, where conditions were already very tough for rights defenders,  two such laws passed in 2016. Shawn Shih-hung Shieh, director of Social Innovations Advisory, tells us how affected groups are adapting and using innovative strategies to offset their lost income.

In this episode:

• Host Akwe Amosu and her colleague Chris Stone consider whether leaderless movements are really leaderless
• Civil society researcher Shawn Shieh finds out how Chinese NGOs are coping without foreign funding
• The Coda:  How  a 19th Century American poem inspires hope in Afghanistan

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