A total of 186 overseas non-governmental organizations (NGOs) set up representative offices in the Chinese mainland from January to August 2017, according to a Ministry of Public Security (MPS) WeChat account on Tuesday.
There are 52 US NGOs registered with the MPS, accounting for 27.96 percent of the total, and topping the list, followed by NGOs from Hong Kong, Japan, Germany and South Korea, according to the ministry's overseas NGO management office.
Groups from these five places make up nearly three quarters of the total.
According to the MPS, Beijing and Shanghai are the most popular cities for overseas NGOs' offices. Among the NGOs, 34.95 percent set up their representative offices in Beijing, while 18.82 percent of them chose to establish branches in Shanghai.
Besides Beijing and Shanghai, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, South China's Guangdong Province and Tianjin Municipality are among the most popular locations for overseas NGOs. These five regions account for 74.2 percent of registrations.
China's new law on overseas NGOs took effect on January 1, stipulating that overseas NGOs have to secure approval from specific government departments that supervise their relevant area of activity before they can operate on the Chinese mainland.
A total of 74 overseas NGOs are administrated by government business authority departments, around 40 percent of the total. The other most popular departments include civil affairs bureaus, health departments, education authorities and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
On average, 24 representative offices were registered with the MPS every month in the period. In the eight-month period 231 temporary activities were conducted by the NGOs.
