“Whether or not these two laws existed hasn’t had much effect on us because we had already felt the impact of the political environment. They just help the government to, as they say, ‘strengthen the rule of law.’ But really the laws are just for the sake of appearances. The government would still be doing the same things without them. Three or four years ago, the government started registering and controlling NGOs. If you had money in other currencies it became very difficult to exchange it into yuan, and if you were using funds from politically sensitive foreign organizations, then many of your events would be banned. It was then that we decided to make a change from doing very politically sensitive advocacy events to collaborative cultural events.”