Group hit as CIA tool of meddling, sabotage

China called on the international community to guard against interference and sabotage attempts by the National Endowment for Democracy under the organization's pretext of "promoting democracy", so as to uphold world peace and development and international fairness and justice.

In a document released on Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denounced the United States for using the NED for infiltration, interference and subversion purposes against other countries under the guise of democracy, freedom and human rights.

"This has grossly violated other countries' sovereignty, security and development interests, blatantly breached international law and basic norms of international relations, and severely jeopardized world peace and stability," it said.

The NED, acting as the U.S. government's "white gloves", has long engaged in subverting state power in other countries, meddling in other countries' internal affairs, inciting division and confrontation, misleading public opinion and conducting ideological infiltration, the document said.

Funded by the U.S. government, the NED is the implementer of the Central Intelligence Agency's covert operations, it said.

"The idea was that the NED would do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades, and thus, hopefully, eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities," the document quoted the late William Blum, a U.S. scholar, as saying.

According to a report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, almost all the NED's funds come from the U.S. Congress.

Kenneth Wollack, chairman of the NED board of directors, once told the U.S. Congress that the NED's long-term goal was to empower the opponents of U.S. enemies and their ability to change foreign governments.

The document said the NED's attempts to overthrow the Iranian government through a human rights movement have been dubbed by Iranian media as "the NED Trojan Horse", disrupting order and inciting unrest in Iran.

The NED has supported pro-U.S. media outlets, cultivated "democracy activists" and financed groups for "democracy and freedom" in Arab countries, according to its 2021 Annual Report.

The document also noted that the NED has long been infiltrating Europe, co-opting European Union officials and financing "independent media" outlets in Europe to tilt public opinion in favor of Washington.

It criticized the NED for inciting division and confrontation to undermine the stability of other countries, saying the NED supports"Taiwan independence" separatist forces, colludes with anti-China destabilizing forces in Hong Kong, supports the anti-China organization "World Uyghur Congress" and shows support for "Tibet independence" activities.

The NED has kept changing tactics and gone even further in acting against the historical trends of peace, development and win-win cooperation, it said, adding that its true nature and innumerable misdeeds have drawn strong condemnation from U.S. individuals and global society.

Former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul once said that the NED wasted a lot of U.S. taxpayers' money to support foreign politicians and parties favored by the U.S., and provided "soft money" to fund foreign election activities, but portrayed such manipulation of elections as "promoting democracy".

The Russian Foreign Ministry in 2015 listed the NED as an "undesirable organization" and banned its activities in Russia.

"It is unpopular and despicable for Washington to use the NED as a means of foreign interference as every country has the right to pursue a development path suited to its national realities and the needs of its people," said Wang Congyue, an associate researcher at the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.