Disclosure of the party’s financial struggles coincides with a broader crisis. “An entire ecosystem of vital China-related work is now in crisis. When the Trump administration froze foreign funding and US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs last week, it immediately affected dozens of scrappy nonprofits in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. Staff are losing their jobs; some organizations face imminent closure due to lack of funding; others are scaling back their programming,” reported the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
The ASPI, which receives funding from the US government and the military-industrial complex, acknowledges that “Beijing believes funding that supports free speech and human rights is interference by ‘hostile foreign forces’”. Consequently, the ASPI author chooses not to “list the names of any specific organizations at this time, because some prefer not to disclose that they receive foreign funding”.
The ASPI then contends, somewhat paradoxically, that “without the work that China nonprofits do, it will be much harder to show that China’s domestic model of economic and political governance is deeply flawed” when compared to “the resilience of democratic governments”.
The ASPI overlooks the irony that the Western model of “democratic resilience” often involves penalizing political entities that covertly accept funds from “adversarial” nations for internal political interference. For instance, the US has a broad array of laws against foreign-funded political interference, and in June 2018, Australia criminalized efforts to “influence a political or government process”.
Regarding USAID, Beijing’s concerns about “hostile foreign forces” are not unfounded. In September, the US House of Representatives passed a bill authorizing more than $1.6 billion over five years for the State Department and USAID to, among other objectives, subsidize media and civil society entities worldwide that counter China’s “malign influence”. Senator Chris Murphy has disclosed that USAID “chases China all around the world” and “supports freedom fighters everywhere”. (The legislation was not voted on by the full Senate and therefore did not become law.)
USAID annually allocates over $250 million to train and fund a vast network of more than 6,200 reporters at nearly 1,000 news outlets or journalism organizations, including major players like The New York Times, the BBC, The Associated Press, and Politico. The Economist, in an article titled “Cuts in American aid are crippling groups promoting rights in China”, suggests that such aid has been instrumental because “journalists rely on them for firsthand accounts and data”, insinuating that Washington finances both the journalists reporting on China and their sources.
This strategy is not a recent development. Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer John Kiriakou recalled that in 1973, then-senator Ted Kennedy inquired with the CIA about using USAID for operations in Southeast Asia, and then-secretary of state Henry Kissinger confirmed this. In 1978, The New York Times reported that USAID’s global police training program served dual purposes: allowing the CIA to place operatives within local police forces globally and to recruit potential CIA agents. Now, USAID markets itself as a champion of civil society and democracy promotion.
Reflecting on the nature of Western think tanks and nongovernmental organizations, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange described them as vehicles to execute political agendas by proxy. Even USAID employees have acknowledged the agency’s strategic aims, with one telling Fox News, “It’s not a generosity project. This is a national security agency and effort at its core.” Consequently, a 2024 Pew Research Center study found that 77 percent of Hong Kong residents view US influence as a threat.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sanctioned by Beijing for his actions over Hong Kong, has pushed the Biden administration to prioritize USAID funding as a means to “counter the Chinese Communist Party’s expanding global influence”. Recently, Rubio stated that the US aims to reform foreign aid to “further the national interest” and “benefit trusted partners and allies”.
During the 2019 Hong Kong protests and riots, then-president Donald Trump maintained a hands-off approach, stating: “That’s between Hong Kong and China. ... They’ll have to deal with that themselves; they don’t need advice.” With the new Trump administration halting the push for China to adopt Western political practices, it’s important to recall the “deep sadness” expressed by individuals like Senator Chuck Schumer, who criticized Trump: “Overnight, the Chinese Communist Party dealt another blow to those in Hong Kong fighting for their voices to be heard. President Trump will forever be known as the president that lost Hong Kong.”
The author is a journalist, geopolitical analyst and economic commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
