Citizens protest outside of Martin Lee Chu-ming's residence in Hong Kong on July 13. Lee reportedly keeps close contact with the NED. Photo: Fu Guohao/GT

A CIA-backed US foundation has been colluding with the heads of the recent Hong Kong riots with financial and strategic support, actions that Chinese experts said show the US' intention of "Americanization" which is endangering Hong Kong.

Sentaku, a Japanese monthly magazine, revealed in August how the foreign forces represented by the US, manipulate the Hong Kong chaos.

The magazine said that Hong Kong extremists received significant funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which it called "a CIA soft-power cutout that has played a critical role in innumerable US regime-change operations."

Under the Reagan administration in 1983, the NED was founded to "support democracy in other countries."

The NED's website shows that it granted $155,000 to the Solidarity Center (SC) and $200,000 to National Democratic Institute (NDI) for International Affairs for work in Hong Kong, and $90,000 to the Hong Kong Justice Center in 2018. NDI received $650,000 from 2016 to 2017, and SC received $459,865 from 2015 to 2017.

"US foundations like the NED have been promoting 'Americanization' around the world," Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University's Institute of International Relations in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.

According to Li, the foundation conducts "transformation" in various regions around the world tangibly and intangibly, but in fact it is a behind the scenes player for color revolutions. It is also the US' way of violating the internal affairs of other countries.

"This is a tradition of US diplomacy," Li noted. "The US does not even try to cover its goal of promoting 'Americanized' governance, which has now been proven a failure and is ridiculous."

Western forces have been directly or indirectly involved in the Hong Kong riots, Shi Yinhong, director of Renmin University of China's Center for American Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.

He noted that the interference also includes media promotion, which aims to encourage the protests to follow the desired direction. "The intention is obvious - to endanger Hong Kong and endanger China."

Splittist camp

Leung Chun-ying, former chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in 2014 warned that foreign forces had been involved in Hong Kong affairs, including the Occupy Central movement.

Martin Lee Chu-ming, known as the "father of democracy" and "extremist" in Hong Kong, in May 2015 called for Western governments to speak out for Hong Kong. 

Martin Lee Chu-ming, chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong Photo: AFP

The opposition camp is publicly colluding with forces attempting to split Xinjiang and Tibet from China. Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po reported in May 2015 that during the Occupy Central movement, leading figures of the opposition camp, including Law Kwun-chung and Chow Yong-kang, went to the US for a "study camp" hosted by a "Civil Force" organization. There, the Hong Kong riot leaders "exchanged experiences" with those from Xinjiang and Tibet independence parties as well as the Falun Gong cult.

Wen Wei Po said that the "Civil Force" was founded by Yang Jianli, who was believed to be a spy for Taiwan. The camp would invite "anti-China and separatist" organizations to study how to confront China every year. The camp is sponsored by the NED, said the report.

US government-backed

On the webpage of NED, it claims to be "a private, non-profit, grant-making organization that receives an annual appropriation from the US Congress." A founder of the NED, Allen Weinstein, told the Washington Post in 1991 that "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."

"US Government, NGOs Fuel and Fund Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Protests," read an article published on the Global Research website in Canada in mid-June. "Maintaining Hong Kong's distance from China has been important to the US for decades."

MintPress News, a US media outlet, said that NED funding for groups in Hong Kong dates back to 1994. Between 1995 and 2013, Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor received more than $1.9 million from the NED.

The Hong Kong Post reported in 2018 that protesters consulted with the NED during the Occupy Central movement in 2014.

Searching "Hong Kong" on the NED website, the Global Times reporter found at least 14 items, including $1.95 million in funding for the region. 

In May, the foundation invited some "pro-secession" activists to attend a seminar, after which the violence in Hong Kong streets became increasingly severe, echoing the voice of anti-China politicians and NGOs in Washington.

The Sentaku magazine said that China has released measures for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which shows that integration of the region will be further enhanced and pragmatic work has started. Under these circumstances, it may be urgent for the US to continue to interfere in Hong Kong affairs.

"The goal is to promote a hostile and suspicious attitude toward China and toward communism and to foster the false concept of a past democratic Hong Kong with a distinct identity," read the New York-based news website Workers World. It warned that what is happening in Hong Kong "should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress."

History of interference

NED has a history of interfering in political affairs in other parts of China as well as around the world. Its website showed that in 2018 alone, it provided 17 items of funding for Tibet-related affairs, including at least $46,870 to Tibetan separatist movements. More money was poured into other parts of the Chinese mainland in the name of "Human Rights" that year.

Besides China, other countries have also suffered from NED's interference.

The Philippine media outlet the Manila Times said on August 7 that "Hong Kong destabilizer NED is the same outfit funding the anti-Duterte media." The CIA-linked outfit NED has extended about 100 million Philippine pesos ($1.9 million) to vociferous anti-Duterte media outfits, it read.

Historically, the organization has played a special political role in some countries, including Poland, Ukraine, Iran and Myanmar, which have been affected by NED's activities, People's Daily quoted the US-based The National Interest magazine in 2015 as saying.

Li Haidong, the international relations professor, said that the US' "reform" aims to have other countries follow the US' direction, maintain US hegemony and serve its leading role globally. "When the US government does not come forward, its NGOs and foundations play directing roles." 

 "The US elites make policies to kidnap the masses in the country, in order to serve the insular elites." Li said. "It will damage not only the interests of Hong Kong and the whole of China, but also the US' interests in the long term."
Newspaper headline: Behind the scenes player