Why a Chinese report on American hands in regime changes is worth considering

The Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China (FMPRC) published a report titled “The National Endowment for Democracy: What It Is and What It Does?” on August 9, 2024. The report’s first sentence describes the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as the “White Gloves” of the US government.

The report has over half a dozen sections, three of which (III, IV, and VII) are more elaborative and relevant concerning the PRC. Section III, titled “Colluding with all sorts of elements to meddle in other countries’ internal affairs”, gives a detailed analysis of how the NED has been instrumental in 1) cultivating pro-US forces in target countries, 2) misrepresenting the human rights situation in other countries, and, above all, 3) manipulating and interfering in other countries’ elections, thereby helping the US spread its tentacles across the globe.

Interestingly, Section VII of the report under the theme “NED exposed and criticised by the US and the international community” narrates 1) NED’s true nature exposed by Americans (by US Congressmen, American media, etc.), and 2) NED’s misdeeds exposed and criticised by the international community. For example, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in addition to think tanks, academics, and media in countries such as Russia, France, Hungary, and Brazil, have criticised the NED’s overt and covert activities across the world, the report adds.

In Section IV (“Inciting division and confrontation to undermine the stability of other countries”), the Report has accused the NED of playing a dubious role in the state of affairs in Taiwan and Hong Kong in the last few years, besides colluding with Uyghurs and Tibetans, which the Chinese government considers anti-state, anti-national, and anti-China. For instance, the report has named three Uyghur diaspora organisations and their leaders as the beneficiaries of the NED for years. As per the Report, the NED has been supporting the Munich-based Uyghur diaspora organisation, the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), with “an average annual funding ranging from 5 to 6 million USD”. Furthermore, the report mentioned that the NED invited a WUC leader early this year to speak at an event organised by it, much to the chagrin of the Chinese authorities. It is essential to mention that on 14 March 2024, the NED invited former President of WUC, Dolkun Isa, to speak at an NED-sponsored event titled “Countering the Chinese communist Party’s Genocide on the Uyghurs" as the author-speaker of his autobiography, The China Freedom Trap: My Life on the Run, published in 2023.

Earlier, a 29 May 2020 publication titled “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act Builds on Work of NED Grantees” found on the NED Webpage mentioned that the NED “has awarded $ 8,758,300 to Uyghur groups since 2004, serving as the only institutional funder for Uyghur advocacy and human rights organisations". It is therefore understood that the WUC has been receiving NED grants since its creation in 2004. Besides, the WUC was the recipient of NED’s 2019 Democracy Award, the publication adds.

The FMPRC Report further accused the NED of providing financial support to one Hidayet Oguzhan, the President of another Uyghur diaspora organisation (East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association) headquartered in Istanbul (Turkiye), besides helping Hidayet “to ramp up anti-China rallies and sow discord between China and  Turkey.” Similarly, the Report alleged that the NED funded Ms. Rushan Abbas, the head of a Uyghur organisation based in the USA, and even sponsored Rushan’s frequent visits to Türkiye to work with Uyghurs. It is important to mention that Rushan is tipped to be the next President of the WUC, the election for which will be held at the end of October this year (2024). Rushan is close to the leadership of the NED.

So far, there has yet to be a response from the WUC or Rushan Abbas. However, as found from Hidayat’s social media posts, he dubbed these allegations as “entirely baseless and part of a defamation campaign aimed at tarnishing our honourable struggle.” He categorically denied having received “any financial assistance from any state, political power, or foreign organisation". Hidayet not only slammed the PRC government for such “manipulative tactics to malign those who defend their rights and to spread misinformation to the global public” but also accused China of attempting “distortion of facts to undermine the legitimacy of East Turkistan.”

The astonishing fact is that this report mentions India a couple of times in sections III and VII. As per the Report, in the last two years, the Journal of Democracy, published under the auspices of the NED, has questioned the efficacy of Indian democracy. For example, in July 2023, the Journal published articles on Indian democracy under “Is India Still a Democracy?” accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of “dismantling democratic institutions, norms, and practices.” Nine months later, in April 2024, an article under the title “Why This Election Is India’s Most Important,” published in the same journal, claimed that “democratic governance in India has been steadily eroding since Modi’s second term began and that the future of India as a plural, secular democracy could be on the line if Prime Minister Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party win a third consecutive term.” It is essential to mention here that the “Indian government put the NED under watch list in 2016 due to its donation to NGOs in contravention of the provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)”, the report added.

Since its inception in 1983 as an integral part of US President Ronald Reagan’s “Project Democracy” to openly support “democratic movements abroad,” the NED has been at the forefront of working under respective US governments as a potential bulwark against countries that are either challenging American supremacy or which are intending to do so. It has never done any good to democracy abroad or democratic movements on foreign soil. Instead, the US has used the NED and its good offices to target, even browbeat, those countries that do not remain subservient to it. America only preaches democracy to maximise national interests or to nurse a grudge against any country it dislikes but hardly professes the core values of democracy.

Since the report gives a clarion call “to unmask NED and alert all countries to the need to see through its true colours, guard against and fight back its disruption and sabotage attempts, safeguard their national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and uphold world peace and development and international fairness and justice,” it is high time the nation-states across the globe, especially democratic set-ups like India, must raise a voice against the activities of the NED and its founder and sponsor, the US.

Mahesh Ranjan Debata teaches at the Center for Inner Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.