Non -profit groups follow the imprisonment of Chinese political dissidents and the expansion of state censorship. They speak of persecuted minority groups such as Uighurs and Tibetans. And they help to support attention on Beijing’s repression of freedoms in Hong Kong.
The future of their work is now in question because Elon Musk’s government efficiency operation aims to a major donor in these groups: the National Endowment for Democracy, or Ned, an American non -profit organization largely funded by the United States.
Several non -profit organizations focused on China have told the New York Times that the endowment had informed them last week that their funding had been suspended indefinitely. The money distributed to the endowment was no longer delivered after the members of the so-called Ministry of Effectiveness of Mr. Musk’s government had access to the payment system of the Treasury Department.
The end of NED funds affects groups around the world, but militants say that the impact on groups focused on China will be particularly serious. Such work has become more crucial – and risky – like Xi Jinping, the most powerful Chinese leader in decades, has led a large -scale repression of civil society and tightened information control.
Through China, dozens of activists, lawyers, journalists and intellectuals were harassed, detained or imprisoned since Mr. Xi came to power in 2012. In the extreme West region of Xinjiang, those responsible have detained and imprisoned about hundreds of thousands of UGHURS and members of other Muslim ethnic minorities.
We do not know how many organizations have been affected by the financing of the endowment. The Treasury Department and the endowment, which was allocated by $ 315 million by the Congress this year, did not respond to requests for comments. The government’s Ministry of Effectiveness could not be joined to comment.
The National Endowment for Democracy was created by the Congress during the Reagan administration to strengthen democracy in the world. He has long attracted the anger of Beijing, who accused the group of having committed “bad deeds” by provoking demonstrations and in “collusion with destabilizing anti-china” in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet.
Among the beneficiaries of the endowment is China Digital Times, a website based in the United States which monitors Chinese Internet controls and censorship. He recently exhibited a disinformation campaign sponsored by the Chinese state targeting the former finance minister of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, who arises to succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The founder of the website, Xiao Qiang, said that his operations had been “seriously disrupted” by the funding suspension, resulting in wage reductions and work time reductions for staff.
“We are faced with important financial challenges that threaten our ability to continue our work,” said Xiao, whose website has been financially supported by the creation of the site in 2013.
A representative of the Uighur World Congress, an exiled Uyghours group, who also saw its Filé Filée funding, said the cuts were at a difficult time for their plea work. The group said that the fate of Muslim Uighours in China had been overshadowed by other world crises, such as wars in Ukraine and Gaza. And his plea efforts were complicated by Beijing’s growing capacity to silence his criticisms abroad by always targeting family members in the country and putting pressure on governments to repatriate asylum seekers.
The funding was particularly important, said the group, because private donors such as companies or entrepreneurs with commercial interests abroad were more vulnerable to Chinese remuneration.
Some activists had hoped that the Trump administration’s appointment of politicians with beautiful opinions on China was a sign that they would retain support from the United States. They deplored how suddenly the funds were cut.
“We, in the Chinese community, were initially full of hope and optimistic about this administration due to appointments like Marco Rubio,” said Zumretay Arkin, vice-president of the Uighur World Congress, about the secretary of State, which has long criticized Beijing’s human rights.
“We are shocked by the speed with which things have changed in time a month,” she continued.
Li Qiang, the founder of China Labor Watch, based in New York, who is trying to end forced work and the milking of Chinese workers, said on Wednesday that NED funds to his group would be interrupted for the first time 23 years old, he was a concessionaire of the organization.
He said that the radical way in which Mr. Musk had mobilized online people to attack groups like the National Endowment for Democracy reminded him of political repression in China aimed at consolidating control under a senior leader.
“History has proven that this approach finally led chaos in China, leading to the death of thousands of innocent people,” said Mr. Li.
The Chinese nationalist voices, on the other hand, applauded the movements of President Trump and Mr. Musk to paralyze the endowment. China accused him of fomenting all kinds of dissent against Beijing, including the 2019 anti -government demonstrations in Hong Kong. Beijing said that the support of the endowment to the rights of rights was an attempt to destabilize the city and weaken Beijing control on this subject. (Hong Kong activists have rejected the accusation of foreign interference as an attempt to overcome their grievances.)
“I am undoubtedly satisfied with this and, hope it, this cut will be in the long term instead of temporary,” said Hu Xijin, retired editor of the Global Times, a tabloid of the Communist Party, in a interview.
Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs of the Renmin de Beijing University, said that the dismantling of US foreign aid has underlined a retirement from the United States from the world scene. He said that the work of the endowment was the way in which America interferes in the internal affairs of other countries and the waste of taxpayers’ money.
“China welcomes this, of course, just like other countries,” he said.
