Lions Clubs in Mainland China
19 May 2002

On May 14 2002, Lions Clubs International announced that the organization was expanding its global network of Lions Clubs with the endorsement of the Government of the People's Republic of China. On the same day, LCI chartered two new clubs in Guangdong and Shenzhen, China, making it the first international service club organization to be granted permission to operate officially in China. Vice Premier Qian Qichen and LCI International President J Frank Moore III were both there to witness the birth of the two clubs which had been established by local Chinese residents and would operate in the same way as all other Lions clubs worldwide.

Back to Rotary International, RI President Richard D King was in March this year discussing with a Vice Minister for Civil Affairs the legislative programme that would enable service clubs to operate formally in the Mainland. In the meantime, the two clubs, in Beijing and in Shanghai, continue to operate as provisional clubs and on the understanding that they would not admit local Chinese residents.

There must be a number of useful lessons RI can learn in the process. To start with, it may be worth pointing out that anything can happen in China if the right procedures are followed by the right people in the right place and at the right time. Guangdong and Shenzhen clearly are not the same as Beijing and Shanghai; and it is widely known that cities in the Pearl River Delta area enjoy higher degees of economic freedoms. It would be wrong, however, to dismiss the recent achievements of Lions Clubs International. Indeed, they should be congratulated.

LCI should be congratulated for its single minded determination to pursue its service projects in China. As an example, as early as 1997, LCI had partnered with the China State Council Coordination Committee on Disability and two of its subsidiaries - the Ministry of Health and the China Disabled Persons' Federation - to launch SightFirst China Action. Under the first phase of the programme, they had planned to restore the sight of 1.75 million people in 31 provinces and cities in China, but the programme has since exceeded its targets. Already, the sight of 2.05 million Chinese has been restored, and the programme has been extended to cover an additional 2.5 million in the next five years.

Such farsighted and generous humanitarian projects truly reflect the objects of a service organization, i.e., to take the service to the people who need our service, as opposed to setting up service clubs in areas that are yet to have such institutional framework.

We certainly need to learn with humility from our partners in service, and the sooner the better.