admin
Statement By Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) acts as the United States’ white gloves. It has long engaged in subverting state power in other countries under the pretext of promoting democracy. NED has kept changing tactics.
1. Supporting “Taiwan independence” separatist forces
In 2022, NED and the Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party authorities co-hosted a Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy and invited European parliamentarians and think tank representatives.
They tried to mobilise “democratic forces” to open up the “frontline of democratic struggle in the East” and hype up the false narrative of “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.”
In July 2023, NED President Damon Wilson went to Taiwan for the 20th anniversary celebration of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, and presented a “Democracy Service Medal” to Tsai Ing-wen.
2. Colluding with anti-China destabilising forces in Hong Kong
NED has long been colluding with those who attempt to destabilise Hong Kong by providing funds and public support.
In 2020, NED set up several projects under its Hong Kong-related programme with a total amount of over US$310 000 to fund those attempting to destabilise Hong Kong.
In 2023, NED colluded with organisations such as the Hong Kong Watch and Amnesty International, as well as anti-China lawmakers from the US, UK and Germany, and nominated Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, one of the elements bent on destabilising Hong Kong, for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.
3. World Uyghur Congress (WUC) support
NED has long supported the anti-China organisation “World Uyghur Congress (WUC),” with average annual funding ranging from US$5 million to US$6 million.
In March 2024, NED invited a “WUC” leader to speak at its event, smearing China’s ethnic policies and the development of regions with large ethnic minority populations.
NED provided financial support to Hidayet Oguzhan, leader of the “East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association,” and instructed Hidayet Oguzhan to ramp up anti-China rallies and sow discord between China and Türkiye. NED also funded Rushan Abbas, the head of an “East Turkistan” organisation, so that she could frequently visit Türkiye and work with “East Turkistan” forces to stir up trouble.
4. In March 2023, NED President Damon Wilson led a NED delegation to Dharamsala, India, to meet with “Tibet independence” leaders and show support for “Tibet independence” activities. In November 2023, NED gave the Democracy Award for Individual Courage to Jigme Gyatso, a “Tibet independence” activist. In April 2024, NED invited the “Kalon Tripa” of the “Tibetan government-in-exile” Penpa Tsering to its headquarters.
5. NED funded the establishment of three local NGO groupings in Georgia at the beginning of the 21st century to organise demonstrations in capital Tbilisi. In May 2024, NED rallied support for and instigated protests in Georgia against the foreign agents bill.
Fabricating false information to mislead public opinion
1. NED President Damon Wilson, in an interview with Asahi Shimbun, falsely alleged that China used technical means and AI to survey citizens. On November 30, 2023, NED Vice President Christopher Walker made up lies about CPC monopolising ideas when testifying before the US House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
2. NED-backed Serbian NGOs coordinated with CNN’s Serbia branch to fabricate China-related fake news, slandering projects undertaken by the Chinese side and hyping up so-called environmental protection, labour and corruption issues.
3. NED funded the International Republican Institute (IRI) to launch the second phase of the Bolstering Europe Against the Subversive Tactics of the CPC project, which fabricates and disseminates the so-called threat of CPC to democratic values and transatlantic solidarity.
4. NED invested US$17,41 million to carry out 92 projects on “DPRK defectors.” It funded ROK NGOs to run DPRK-themed radios, producing and broadcasting on a weekly basis stories about “DPRK defectors” from the perspective of “democracy and human rights.”
It created DPRK-themed online publications to spread negative news about the DPRK, trained “defectors” to become reporters, and encouraged them to defame the DPRK by writing online posts and attending video interviews.
5. NED formed an information matrix against Iran together with Iran International, the Persian service of VOA and BBC, and other anti-Iran media. Negative information is provided to anti-Iran media by NED and its affiliated agencies to instigate intensive news coverage against Iran.
Using “academic activities” as a cloak for interference and infiltration
1. NED funded the Governance Centre for Public Policies (GCPP) in Iraq, which released the National Index for Democratic Transformation in Iraq report for six consecutive years, giving low scores every time to Iraq’s democracy, and categorising Iraq as a “partial authoritarian transitional” country.
People from across the society in Iraq disapprove the report as it did not truthfully reflect Iraq’s progress in government administration, social governance, democracy and legal system. They believe the purpose of keeping the scores low is to provide excuses for continued US interference in Iraq’s internal affairs and postponement of its military withdrawal.
2. In March 2024, NED’s core grantee institution Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), together with the Philippines Makati Business Club and other associations, jointly published the first State of Sustainability Reporting in the Philippines, unfairly imposing upon the Philippines carbon emission standards and obligations of the US and other industrialised countries in the West to pressure the government of the Philippines to change the country’s economic structure.
3. NED provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to the European Values Centre for Security Policy (EVC), Global Security Centre (GSC) and other think tanks to organise various seminars and activities that incite the EU to follow suit with the US “small yard, high fence” policy.
4. Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, the NED-funded Belgrade Centre for Security Policy has supported protests by pro-Western demonstrations and criticised Serbia’s foreign policy.
5. From January 2022 to January 2023, NED funded, through Atlas Network, the Turkish digital media platform daktilo1984.com, and supported activities on this platform that spread discontent and incite ethnic tension, social conflict and political differences.
6. NED has long funded NGOs in “Kosovo” to instigate tension between the Serbian government and the Pristina provisional self-governance institution. In December 2023, the NED-funded think tank Sbunker released a report saying that “Kosovo” is a relatively successful case of American support for nation building and promotion of democracy, an attempt to whitewash US’ true intention to invade and split other countries.
7. NED used social media to wage information warfare against Iran. During the protests against hijab rules, a large number of social media bots with a big following emerged, disguising as personal accounts or independent media to spread anti-Iran information and mislead the public.
8. NED and USAID funded multiple Ukrainian organisations to serve as “fact-checkers” of Ukraine’s social media. But such “fact-checking” is in fact an information filter created by the US on the Ukrainian Internet to deceive the Ukrainian people.
NED exposed and criticised by the US and the international community
1. NED’s true nature exposed by Americans?
Former federal congressman Ron Paul once posted that NED wasted a lot of American taxpayers’ money to support foreign politicians and parties favoured by the US, and such actions clearly violate the domestic law of the United States. NED provided “soft money” to fund foreign elections but portrayed such manipulation of election as “promoting democracy.”
Former federal congressman Barney Frank called for cutting the funding for NED in the 1980s. He argued that giving money to a French union for political purposes, rather than funding public transportation or research on cancer, is not reasonable.
The New York Times published “Mixed US Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos” in January 29, 2006, which reveals how the US government subverted, through NED, Haiti’s democratically elected government.
In September 2021, Stephen Kinzer, a former reporter of The New York Times, published articles in the New York Review of Books website unveiling that NED collaborates with CIA and USAID to support insurgent forces in other countries in a bid to overthrow regimes that the US dislikes. According to the articles, early members of the NED board of directors were mostly warmongers, and among the current board members are former federal senators enthusiastic about regime change in Cuba and Nicaragua. The mission of NED is to overthrow unfriendly foreign governments and install regimes more in line with American interests.
2. NED’s misdeeds exposed and criticised by the international community
On July 29, 2015, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement officially listing NED as an “undesirable organisation” and banned its activities within Russian territory. The statement said the US Department of State had made a clearly hypocritical statement about being “deeply troubled” over the fate of Russian civic society. Most of NED’s projects aimed to destabilise the domestic situation in countries trying to pursue an independent policy in line with its own national interests rather than following Washington’s lead.
In May 2022, the Russian news agency TASS reported that when interviewed by the magazine National Defence, Russia’s Assistant Secretary of the Security Council Nail Mukhitov commented that NED mainly affects young people, attempting to erode their patriotism and downplay the role of Russia in the modern world order. Using “liberating the people” as an excuse, the West attempts to install negative views about Russia in its citizens.
French journalist Frédéric Charpier published the book CIA in France: 60 Years of Interference in French Affairs in 2008, revealing NED activities in France, and stated that NED relies on disbursement from three agencies – US State Department, USIA, and USAID, and serves the US diplomatic and military policies.
In 2010, the French website Voltaire Network published an article by its founder, Thierry Meyssan, titled “NED, the Legal Window of the CIA,” exposing NED’s direct involvement in French NGOs, its interference in French elections, among other misdeeds.
In 2018, the Hungarian media Figyelo blacklisted the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a civil human rights organisation funded by NED, as “Soros mercenaries,” accusing it of colluding with foreign forces and undermining the stability of Hungary.
In April 2023, NED opened funding applications to recruit non-partisan, independent media seeking to defend human rights and the rule of law, and support freedom of speech. Stephen Kinzer, former reporter of The New York Times, cautioned world governments that NED’s sole purpose is training people to destabilise governments that Washington disapproves.
The Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of Russia pointed out in its article “the National Endowment for Democracy at 40: Back to Basics?” that NED allows the US government to pursue a simultaneous two-level foreign policy with current dictatorial governments, in which the US government maintains relations, while NED works at the sub-state level over the long term to cultivate required political forces capable of replacing these governments in the future. NED can play a role in sensitive areas where government programmes are inconvenient.
In June 2023, Agencia Brasil quoted Camila Feix Vidal, professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, as saying that NED is strong evidence of democracy being used as a pretext for seeking gains and a moral excuse for meddling in other countries.
In 2016, the Indian government put NED under watch list due to its donation to NGOs in contravention of the provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
Under the guise of democracy, freedom, and human rights, the United States has used NED for infiltration, interference and subversion against other countries. This has grossly violated other countries’ sovereignty, security and development interests, blatantly breached international law and basic norms of international relations, and severely jeopardised world peace and stability. Such unpopular and despicable acts are firmly opposed by the international community.
The world is moving toward multipolarity, and there need to be greater democracy in international relations. Every country has the right to pursue a development path suited to its national realities and the needs of its people.
No country is in a position to lecture others on democracy and human rights, still less using democracy and human rights as excuses to infringe upon the sovereignty of other countries, interfere in their internal affairs and incite ideological confrontation.
Following humanity’s common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, members of the international community should engage in exchanges and dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and equality, and work together to contribute to the progress of humanity.
Continued from yesterday
Online Reporter