My Take | US group leads rest in global interference
The National Endowment for Democracy has even funded those working against popularly elected leaders and puts the activities of any China-linked bodies in the shade
Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying and other leftist politicians were widely mocked for claiming foreign bodies were behind the Occupy movement of 2014. They exaggerated, but were not completely off the mark.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), for example, is a pretty naughty instrument of US foreign policy, and it has been funding local groups both before and after 2014. Now, though, its days may be numbered.
US President Donald Trump wants to gut NED by cutting two-thirds of its budget. The US Congress may yet reject the attempt, as the group, founded by Ronald Reagan, has enjoyed bipartisan support.
Since its inception in 1983, it has taken up some of the propaganda work it inherited from the CIA which had suffered from years of scandals involving criminal activities overseas. Such duties include reaching out to opposition leaders and local opinion makers to manipulate election outcomes against foreign regimes both democratic and authoritarian.
Writing in The Washington Post this month, Stephen Kinzer, an international and public affairs specialist at Brown University, said the group should more properly be called the “National Endowment for Attacking Democracy”.