Nick Young founded China Development Brief in 1995 to report on efforts to achieve fair and sustainable development in China. Twelve years later it has been closed down by the Chinese government and Young’s visa cancelled. What does this tell us about Chinese government attitudes to the country’s fledgling NGO sector, Caroline Hartnell asked him. The picture he paints is of a government that is on the one hand wary of pluralism and oppositional attitudes and on the other keen to promote charitable giving and service delivery by NGOs.