Photo: NDI website

Observers have urged the Hong Kong government to implement sanctions against US organizations after the leader of a US-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) allegedly met riot leaders in Hong Kong to support violence earlier this month.

Adam Nelson, senior program manager in Asia of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), met some Hong Kong riot leaders at a restaurant on December 10 to discuss how the NGO could strengthen its role in the city and support the rioters - help them win international support and adjust strategies - after being sanctioned, media reported.

The institute receives funds from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the US, believed to play a major role in funding color revolutions and training political activists worldwide to create trouble for many non-Western states.

Media reported that NED increased its investment in Hong Kong after the "Occupy Central Movement" in 2014. It spent $1.3 million to sponsor Hong Kong-based groups from 1990 to 2018. Between 2015 and 2018, an average of $450,000 was spent on the city to instigate sabotage.

Wei Nanzhi, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that more and more evidences prove that some NGOs have been involved in the Hong Kong riots, blaming them for the current chaos in the city and urging the regional government to implement the sanctions as soon as possible.

Both NED and NDI have been sanctioned in China's first wave of countermeasures against US' so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act announced by the Foreign Ministry on December 2 for their horrible activities in the months-long turmoil in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on December 3 vowed to cooperate and follow up the central government's sanctions in accordance with law.

Wei noted that some US foundations like the NDI have been promoting "Americanization" around the world, which is the US way of violating the internal affairs of other countries.

She also noted that regional government should implement Article 23 of the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law to improve the legal framework to safeguard national security in Hong Kong.

Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the regional authorities can borrow the "foreign agent" ideas from the US and register the sanctioned NGOs and its propaganda organizations as "political agents," which have to file periodic reports regarding their work and can hamper their ability to carry out activities in Hong Kong.

Shen noted NGOs that had supported anti-China forces to create chaos in Hong Kong, and local media Apple Daily should be required to register as such agents. 

The intention of the NGOs and the Apple Daily is obvious - to endanger Hong Kong and China, Shen said, urging more complete legislation to punish those who threaten national security.

Hong Kong media reported that seven attendees appeared at the meeting on December 10, including an employee of US Amnesty International in Asia, Hong Kong barrister Martin Lee Chu-ming, who is known as a member of the "Gang of Four" endangering the city and seen by many as a traitor, Labour Party veteran and ex-lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, and Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, who is the member of the Civic Party.