Updated February 20, 2025 at 05:00 AM ET
In 1982, in the midst of the Cold War, Republican President Ronald Reagan addressed members of parliament in the United Kingdom, calling for tools "to foster the infrastructure of democracy."
Since then, a trifecta of U.S. government agencies — the State Department, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) — has funded much of the pro-democracy and human rights infrastructure around the world.
Now the foreign assistance funding that these agencies disburse are on the chopping block. USAID accounts for much of the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to shrink the federal government, which they see as cost savings, according to the official DOGE.gov site.
Last month, the U.S. cut nearly all funding to pro-democracy and human rights groups abroad, though a federal judge issued an order last week to unblock money for foreign assistance. But the Trump administration has since countered in court filings, saying they have broad authority to cancel contracts and grants. USAID has not resumed paying funds to thousands of programs around the globe.
Many of the groups seeing their funding being cut operate in places like Southeast Asia and on the African continent, where the U.S. is actively vying with China for economic and political influence — and there is evidence that China is moving in to fill parts of the vacuum the U.S. leaves behind.
The federal funding cuts have effectively shuttered USAID, while grant workers at the National Endowment for Democracy have been unable to access their funds through the Treasury Department.
Also frozen are approximately $200 million in funds that the State Department gives out annually in what are called "DRL" grants, targeted specifically at programs abroad that "promote democracy, protect human rights and international religious freedom, and advance labor rights globally."
How has that impacted pro-democracy organizations on the ground?
The impact on China-focused organizations has been immediate. Nearly all are considering laying off staff and suspending some programs.
The groups affected encompass those China and other authoritarian governments frequently criticize: women's rights groups, human rights research groups, civil society training workshops and legal aid nonprofits.
The cuts and imminent closures of influential China-focused groups risks decimating the few remaining watchdog and civil society groups that have already been targeted by the Chinese state itself, which brooks no dissent or open criticism of its policies.
One of the groups affected is New York-based China Labor Watch, which investigates labor rights abuses in China. Its founder, Li Qiang, says about 90 percent of its funding came from the U.S. State Department and NED, allowing it to expand the scope of its corporate investigations, including into manufacturing giant Foxconn.
NPR spoke to seven organizations that saw their U.S. funding cut. Li was only one who wanted to go on the record, because organizations are afraid of losing even more funding and they are fearful of highlighting their work in China.
"I left China because I felt I could not speak freely there," Li told NPR of his decision to speak out against the cuts in foreign assistance. "Why else did I come to the United States? If I maintain my silence and do not say anything, then coming to America was pointless."
Why is the funding being cut?
Part of the reason given by Musk and others close to Trump is that the agencies that fund pro-democracy groups are wasteful.
Musk also shared on X, the social media site that he owns, a post that alleges USAID was behind a "hoax" alleging Russian collusion in the Trump administration. He also amplified a popular theory that NED is a front for the Central Intelligence Agency — narratives that have been repeatedly used by Chinese government agencies to criticize U.S. foreign assistance funding.
"The geopolitical information warfare is no longer something that's happening halfway across the world but is happening within our own governments," says Francisco Bencosme, USAID's former China policy lead. "When our government is spreading false information, that is dangerous to everyone."
For example, Musk wrote on X, in a post that has since been deleted, that NED is a "scam." He also re-shared a compilation of news stories collected by X's AI chatbot Grok to support his claim. Among the stories in the post was a takedown of the U.S. foundation from the foreign ministry of China.
The criticism of foreign aid is a reversal of what some Republicans — including Marco Rubio, the current U.S. secretary of state — had previously stated.
As a former U.S. senator, Rubio was a proponent of foreign aid, seeing it as essential to U.S. national security by promoting U.S. democratic ideals and goodwill abroad. "We don't have to give foreign aid. We do so because it furthers our national interest," Rubio said in 2013. "Anybody who tells you that we can slash foreign aid and that will bring us to balance is lying to you," he said in 2019.
But since joining Trump's administration, Rubio has defended the massive cuts.
How is China moving in to fill the gap?
At least two human rights organizations that are China-focused but are based here in the U.S. and have received U.S. funding in the past tell NPR they have already been approached by people linked to the Chinese government who are offering to introduce them to new, China-based funders. This has specifically happened, they say, in the days since they have faced losing funding from the U.S. The groups requested anonymity to speak to NPR because revealing the source of their funding could publicly could impact the safety of their employees both in China and the U.S.
A Chinese state representative who answers to the government and requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly confirmed they have reached out to at least one China-focused civil society group based in the U.S. that is at risk of losing funding.
They say they proposed to the group that instead of criticizing people and organizations in China publicly, they could facilitate private conversations within China to achieve social change — a proposition one of the groups this person was in contact with said felt like a tactic buy their silence. The Chinese state representative argued it would be a more effective way for them to work.
A state-run Chinese state tabloid Global Times denied Beijing was moving in to supplant American funding: "The claim made by some Western media and certain figures in the [U.S.] political scene that Trump's dismantling of USAID will … only allow China to step in and fill the influence vacuum is, in essence, a false cognitive structure built on Western biases."
How effective can China be in filling the funding gap?
Research has documented Chinese state funding of soft power and international development has achieved mixed results. Beijing has been able to buy up media outlets and spread its state media content globally. It has dramatically stepped up aid funding and built its own international investment bank to support development work.
Beijing's soft power push has also been dogged by allegations of bureaucratic bloat, environmental violations, labor rights complaints and unfair financing.
But China has dramatically increased resources for humanitarian and development projects internationally at a time when the U.S. is slashing most of its funding.
Beijing does not publish its total budget for soft power-related spending. It pledged more than $50 billion in additional funding to the African continent last year and has surged to become the second-largest donor to the Pacific region, behind Australia. By comparison, the U.S. once spent around $70 billion annually on foreign assistance.
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