Included in the federal spending being paused by the Trump administration is funding for the National Endowment for Democracy, which helps others act against the Chinese Communist Party.
National Review says (“DOGE’s Gift to the Chinese Communist Party,” February 13, 2025):
Musk is fulminating against the National Endowment for Democracy without understanding the critical role it plays….
NED is “RIFE with CORRUPTION,” he wrote, singling out GOP Senator Todd Young, who sits on the State Department–backed NGO’s board. The agency and its members are guilty of “crimes”…. Among the offenses NED has supposedly committed, its “CIA-like operations” raise “concerns about its true purpose and methods.” Indeed, the outfit has “historical ties to the CIA” and funds “anti-government protests” designed to “destabilize countries.” It even backs “color revolutions”—all of which indicate that the organization wields “a strategic use of democracy promotion for geopolitical gain.”
Sorry, what’s the problem here? If only the rest of the government’s wasteful programs were as focused on advancing America’s “geopolitical gain” as NED appears to be—at least, according to its critics…..
‘The impact [of the pause in funding of NED] will be hugely negative,’ said Chinese dissident Teng Biao. ‘A lot of dissidents and activists don’t want to make it public but have received money from NED. It is unlikely that most of the organizations can get alternative funding.”
The New York Times says (“Cuts to U.S.-Backed Rights Groups Seen as a Win for China,” February 14, 2025).
The nonprofit groups track the imprisonment of Chinese political dissidents and the expansion of state censorship. They speak out for persecuted minority groups like the Uyghurs and Tibetans. And they help sustain attention on Beijing’s crackdown of freedoms in Hong Kong.
The future of their work is now in question as Elon Musk’s government efficiency operation takes aim at an important backer of such groups: the National Endowment for Democracy, or N.E.D., an American nonprofit largely funded by the United States.
Several China-focused nonprofits told The New York Times that the endowment had informed them this past week that their funding had been suspended indefinitely. Money distributed to the endowment was no longer being delivered after members of Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system….
Some activists had hoped that the Trump administration’s appointment of politicians with hawkish views on China was a sign that they would retain support from the United States. They lamented how abruptly the funds were cut.
“We in the China community were initially hopeful and optimistic about this administration because of appointments like Marco Rubio,” Zumretay Arkin, the vice president of the World Uyghur Congress, said about the secretary of state, who has long been critical of Beijing’s human rights record.
“We are shocked by how rapidly things have changed in not even a month,” she continued.
The Times quotes Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, as saying that a Musk-style approach to reform “ultimately led to chaos in China, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent people”; this statement is intemperate. A pause in funding implemented with the goal of finding and eliminating wasteful spending and corrupt spending is not anywhere in the vicinity of paving the way to totalitarian dictatorship—not even if Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is making some mistakes.
Fate of NED
President Trump’s funding freeze is being litigated. The impact of the litigation and any court orders is uncertain.
But since the funding of National Endowment for Democracy has been authorized by Congress, to the extent that the recipient organizations are worthy and the funding is not being misdirected, perhaps it will in any case be resumed before the full ninety-day pause has expired. If NED does need to be reformed, perhaps the funding will be resumed on a new basis with new requirements.
At least one observer of the NED contends that the organization is “Undemocratic” and “Needs Oversight and Reform” (Heritage Foundation, August 6, 2024). The gist:
1. The National Endowment for Democracy is required by law to be bipartisan, but it discriminates against Republicans and conservatives in its hiring practices.
2. The NED excludes conservatives and Republicans from taxpayer-funded events and [forums] and promotes leftwing causes.
3. The NED duplicates functions and capacities already present in government agencies and departments and should be defunded.
What’s the proper verdict about all this? I don’t know. But it’s not self-evident that because Trump’s federal spending pause and audit are inconveniencing many people, this has been the wrong way to go.
Also see:
Monster Hunter Nation: Educating the Stupid on How Audits Work in Real Life
