NED 1996 Annual Report: Programs in Asia

While the East Asian economic miracle and transitions from authoritarian regimes to democratic forms of government in Taiwan, South Korea, and Thailand attract well-deserved attention, the region also contains all but two of the communist one-party states left in the world. North Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos, and Burma stand out as regimes that continue to repress their own people and to pose threats to regional and world stability. The Endowment provides support to prodemocracy activists working under severe conditions of repression in the three largest of these countries.

In other parts of the region, the Endowment is able to help democrats in a variety of circumstances, whether the task is democratic consolidation following the fall of a previous regime, as in Cambodia and Mongolia, or attempting to spur the genuine political transformation of the "soft authoritarian" regimes in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

In Burma, China, and Vietnam, NED supported programs provide information, material assistance, and a lifeline to the outside world to prodemocracy individuals and groups working under severely repressive conditions. The diversity and vigor of the Burmese and Chinese prodemocracy movements allowed for relatively large allocations of funds for these countries. In Burma, the Endowment provided vital support for the democracy movement led by the National League for Democracy and Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Through its discretionary program, NED enabled the Burmese in exile and living in the border areas of the country to overcome the censorship and crude propaganda of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) regime through a variety of information-related initiatives. In 1996, NED supported a twice-daily radio program taped in Thailand and the border areas of Burma, an international newsletter, and a highly popular Burmese-language underground newspaper whose circulation has risen from 3,000 copies per issue to 8,000 copies per issue in less than three years. The Endowment has also made possible pioneering coalition-building efforts among the democratic opposition and the long-aggrieved ethnic groups. This was the first successful effort to arrange face-to-face talks among groups demoralized and divided by 40 years of civil war since massive slorc military offenses against the ethnic groups on the eastern border began in 1993. Because all four core institutes are now active in support of efforts to restore democracy in Burma, the Endowment has been able to contribute more than ever before to a comprehensive and effective set of initiatives by the Burmese living in Thailand and India to continue supporting the beleaguered National League for Democracy members and other democracy movement supporters inside the country.

In China, the Endowment is able to support both various prodemocracy networks comprising dissidents and human rights supporters who must operate under severe constraints and programs that take advantage of opportunities created by official economic, legal, and municipal reform policies. To enable dissidents to freely circulate information and opinion in spite of increasingly harsh government efforts to crush independent voices, NED programs supported several Chinese-language prodemocracy periodicals, Internet publications, and a newspaper. NED also supported a variety of democratic information dissemination projects for Tibetan audiences in Tibet, India, and the United States. To provide some international protection for victims of government harassment inside the country, NED grantee Human Rights in China (HRIC) maintained around-the-clock human rights monitoring and reporting, via faxed press releases, during government crackdowns and trials of key dissidents such as Wang Dan and Wei Jingsheng. Issuing more than 35 press releases, in addition to a quarterly bilingual magazine and several in-depth reports, HRIC achieved widespread coverage of their information in the wire services and major newspapers not only in the United States, but in Hong Kong, Taiwan, other parts of Asia, and Europe as well. In addition, the Free Trade Union Institute continued to support a network of labor rights researchers, advocates, and educators.

The Endowment also supported efforts of liberal democrats and scholars inside China to advance significant reforms. In addition to several discretionary programs concentrated on policy research and analysis, the International Republican Institute (IRI) continued its legislative development program. IRI worked to institutionalize and improve local election procedures and initiated training in local governance for elected, village-level officials. The Center for International Private Enterprise supported a symposium series on public affairs in Beijing, China's first international conference on the role of the private sector, and a program to educate business management teachers and entrepreneurs in business ethics and the role of business in civil society.

The pace of democratic institutionalization in Mongolia has stepped up dramatically following the spectacular victory in the June 1996 parliamentary elections of the democratic opposition coalition, which has benefited from IRI training and consultation over the past four years. The peaceful handover from the ruling former-communist party, which had been in power continuously for 75 years, to a liberal-democratic majority in parliament creates an opening for Mongolia to begin making progress in the consolidation of democracy. Toward this goal, the Endowment also supported the League of Democratic Mongolian Women (LEOS), a woman's ngo that provides democracy and human rights education for the nation's widely dispersed population and conducts activities to encourage greater popular participation in government and policy making.

"We, the Third World people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, still have a life-and-death struggle for democracy, freedom, and justice against ruthless dictatorships. The NED's support for our struggles, in the face of severely limited resources, is of great importance and could make a difference between total victory and defeat for the democratic forces."

Dr. Sein Win

Prime Minister

National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma

NED 1995 Annual Report – Programs in Asia

"Quê Me's network of democratic activists in Viet Nam has enabled us to provide swift and reliable information to the international community on the status of human rights violations in Viet Nam, and urge governments and international organizations to pressure the Vietnamese government to make reforms."

--Vo Van Ai, President, Vietnam Committee on Human Rights

"Today, China's greatest challenge is dealing with problems of workers as the country restructures its economy. We believe that if workers can begin to responsibly consult with management that China will have a chance to move peacefully towards a more democratic society."

--Han Dongfang, Editor, China Labor Bulletin

NED's multi-faceted program in China includes support for human rights monitoring and education, publications that provide a forum for the uncensored views of Chinese democrats, work with reformers at the provincial level on electoral reform, symposia on market reform issues, and promotion of international labor rights standards. Recipients of funding include Chinese dissidents and their support groups in the West, among them Harry Wu and the Laogai Research Foundation, Wang Juntao and the China Strategic Institute, and the Hong Kong-based labor activist Han Dongfang. Upon his return to the United States following incarceration in China in the summer of 1995, Harry Wu stated, "Without NED's support, my colleagues and I simply could not continue to document and report the truth about China's gulag and how it stands in the way of the development of democracy." In my humble opinion, the money for NED "puts the American people squarely behind those struggling for the cause that America has always represented to others around the world--'the cause of freedom'."

The Hong Kong-based Labour Education and Information Center, which is supported by NED through the Asian American Free Labor Institute, published two reports in its China Labour Bulletin that effectively challenged Chinese government propaganda about the role of women in China during the period leading up to the UN Conference on Women held in Beijing. These reports discussed the plight of women workers in various industrial sectors, efforts of government-controlled groups to prevent independent unions, and suggestions for reform. The publications, which received widespread media coverage outside China, were confiscated by security personnel as an attempt was made to distribute them during the Beijing conference.

NED also supported a multi-faceted program in Burma, where the unexpected release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi brought a glimmer of hope for democratic progress. NED funding (through the National Coalition for Democracy) for the efforts of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) to heighten international awareness of the situation in Burma helped increase pressure for improvements in the human rights situation and for Suu Kyi's release. The International Republican Institute (IRI) provided financial and technical support to the National League for Democracy/Liberated Areas. Despite the pressures imposed by Burma's pervasive internal security, IRI worked with elements of the prodemocracy movement located on the border areas and within Burma to support the exiled democratically-elected government.

Through the Asian American Free Labor Institute, vital assistance is being provided to the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma to develop trade union materials, train educators and organizers, and publish a newsletter for workers inside the country and along the Thai-Burmese border. With NED funding, a twice-daily short-wave radio program known as the "Democratic Voice of Burma" became a dependable source of information throughout Burma and was a major source of news and information for Suu Kyi during her years of house arrest.

NED support also helped to double the circulation of The New Era, a bimonthly Burmese language newspaper covering current conditions in the country and the activities of the prodemocracy movement. Both the "Democratic Voice of Burma" and The New Era have become integral parts of the democratic leadership's strategic plan to rally support for a democratic transition. Dr. Sein Win, the elected prime minister of the NCGUB, has recognized NED for its support, noting the critical role the Endowment has played in helping Burma's democratic forces continue their struggle to restore democracy. 

IRI has also been active in Mongolia, the one country in Asia that has moved from communism to democracy, helping two democratic parties prepare for the country's second round of parliamentary elections, to be held in 1996. To compete effectively against a ruling parliamentary party that has vastly superior resources, these parties were encouraged to develop national party platforms and a means of communicating them to rural dwellers who make up 80 percent of the population. At a training session held in September for the national leadership and party leaders from each of the 18 provinces and three municipalities, IRI trainers emphasized the need to develop a strategic plan for the ten months prior to the election.

NED Annual Report - Fiscal Year 1994 Programs in Asia

The priority areas in Asia for the Endowment in 1994 were the remaining authoritarian countries. The region includes the largest remaining Communist power, China, as well as several of the last remaining closed countries of the world: Burma, Vietnam, Laos, and North Korea.

NED support for programs targeted at these countries increased in 1994, with a large proportion of overall Asia programming concentrated on China. Support was provided for numerous publications and advocacy programs as well as several projects designed to spread democratic and free-market ideas. In Burma, NED supported a daily short-wave broadcasting program, training for democratic party leaders, human rights-oriented youth groups, and advocacy work including a newsletter and video production. NED also continued its civic education and human rights programs in Laos and Vietnam. The severity of the isolation of North Korea continued to block all attempts to develop viable programs there.

In the fragile and emerging democracies of South and Southeast Asia, NED supported a wide variety of programs designed to consolidate newly-won democratic systems, primarily support for civic participation programs, for the development of civil society, and for fostering pluralism through trade union and private sector development.

NED also increased its involvement in region-wide efforts. FTUI carried out initiatives focusing on worker rights, including child labor issues. NED supported an unprecedented forum of prominent democratic leaders in the region, as well as increased NGO coordination on the issue of the universality of human rights.