"Grassroots charity energy has been stockpiling for years and it is now getting released into society. The development of charity works could hardly move forward without nongovernmental powers, or grassroots charities," reads the Annual Report on China's Philanthropy Development in 2010, published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The number of social organizations in China increased from 414,000 in 2009 to 439,000 last year, a comparison of the two years' reports shows. "Lots of them directly or indirectly conduct charity works," the preface says.