China accuses US group National Endowment for Democracy of 'ideological infiltration'

China has accused a US-based group of “ideological infiltration”, including funding anti-Beijing forces in Hong Kong and supporting separatist forces in Taiwan, in a lengthy report aimed at “unmasking” its operations.

In the report published by China’s foreign ministry on Friday, Washington was accused of “subverting state power in other countries” and “conducting ideological infiltration” through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – claims that have been echoed by countries in Latin America and the Middle East.

The NED is funded by the United States Congress with the stated aim of supporting “democratic struggles everywhere”. It funds overseas groups, unions and institutions. In 1997, founding chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, Martin Lee Chu-ming received the Democracy Award, the group’s top honour.

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“The NED has long been colluding with those who attempt to destabilise Hong Kong by providing funds and public support,” the report said, naming organisations including Hong Kong Watch and Amnesty International, as well as “anti-China lawmakers” in the US, UK and Germany.

In 2020, the NED funded projects in Hong Kong totalling US$310,000 amid anti-government protests against the introduction of a now-scrapped extradition bill, it said.

The foundation, sometimes referred to as Washington’s “regime-change arm”, also nominated Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, a leading figure of the Hong Kong movement, for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.

Hong Kong’s Democratic Party founding chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming is a past recipient of NED’s top honour, the Democracy Award. Photo: Jonathan Wong alt=Hong Kong’s Democratic Party founding chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming is a past recipient of NED’s top honour, the Democracy Award. Photo: Jonathan Wong>

The NED makes more than 2,000 grants each year to groups in more than 100 countries “working for democratic goals”, according to the group’s website.

Michael Pillsbury, a former US Department of Defence official, said in 2014 that Washington had “funded millions of dollars of programmes” targeting Hong Kong through the NED.

“Every country has the right to pursue a development path suited to its national realities and the needs of its people,” the foreign ministry’s report said, while calling for “greater democracy in international relations”.

“No country is in a position to lecture others on democracy and human rights, [or use] democracy and human rights as excuses to infringe upon the sovereignty of other countries, interfere in their internal affairs and incite ideological confrontation.”

Beijing has long denounced the organisation. In 2022, the foreign ministry issued a “fact sheet” accusing Washington of weaponising democracy through the NED, which it said had been “meddling in Hong Kong’s elections and interfering in China’s internal affairs”.

The latest report also accused the NED of working with Taipei’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party “to mobilise ‘democratic forces’ to open up the ‘front line of democratic struggle in the East’ and hype up the false narrative of ‘Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow’.”

It noted that in 2022, the two sides co-hosted the World Movement for Democracy’s Global Assembly event, which was attended by European parliamentarians and think tank representatives. A year later, Taiwan’s then-leader Tsai Ing-wen was presented with the group’s Democracy Service Medal by NED president Damon Wilson.

The report also mentioned NED’s support for the World Uygur Congress – a Munich-based organisation that alleged Uygurs, a predominantly Muslim minority group, were being “genocided” in far west China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

NED’s average annual funding for the World Uygur Congress ranges from US$5 million to US$6 million, according to the report.

An article published in the NED’s Journal of Democracy this month urged civil society organisations to push back on what it called Beijing’s “deliberate, ongoing antidemocratic strategy” to “undermine core democratic values and practices”.

It suggested groups should partner with “Chinese dissidents and other foreign China experts” to spread knowledge of Communist Party “methods and tactics”.

“The sprawling, full-spectrum influence and engagement campaign that the Chinese Communist party-state is waging around the world requires an equally comprehensive response from civil societies, governments, and economic actors that back democracy,” the article said.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-accuses-us-group-national-093000247.html