An entire ecosystem of vital China-related work is now in crisis. When the Trump administration froze foreign funding and USAID programs last week, dozens of scrappy nonprofits in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States were immediately affected. Staff are losing their jobs; some organisations face imminent closure due to lack of funding; others are paring back their programming.
In many cases, these organisations provide our last window into what is actually happening in China. They do the painstaking and often personally risky work of tracking Chinese media censorship, tallying local protests, uncovering human rights violations, documenting the Uyghur genocide, and supporting what remains of civil society in China. They provide platforms for Chinese people to speak freely; they help keep the dream of democracy in China alive. I’m not listing the names of any specific organisations at this time, because some prefer not to disclose that they receive foreign funding. Beijing believes funding that supports free speech and human rights is interference by ‘hostile foreign forces’.
As a journalist who covered China for more than 10 years, I took for granted the numerous organisations I could turn to when I needed certain kinds of information. But Donald Trump’s foreign spending freeze has revealed how dependent these organisations are on a single government for their survival—and, by extension, how fragile our sources of information about China really are.
The US must immediately grant emergency waivers to China-focussed nonprofits. If the US is not able to do this, governments around the world that value democracy, human rights and truth must step in and find a way to restore funding to these organisations now. It wouldn’t take much; a few million dollars spread across a handful of donor nations would be enough to preserve the research, expertise and networks these organisations represent.
A key part of China’s agenda is to persuade its own citizens and the world, falsely and through deception and coercion, that democratic systems are not better. Beijing claims its system is the best way to guarantee economic prosperity and stability. It claims its one-party system is a meritocracy.
It is difficult and time-consuming—though not particularly expensive—to do the work that proves Beijing is lying, and that what it offers is smoke and mirrors. Tools that allow us to uncover the flaws of China’s own system and the actual struggles Chinese people face, directly support the goals, security and resilience of democratic governments.
Without the work that China nonprofits do, it will be much harder to show that China’s domestic model of economic and political governance is deeply flawed. If we can no longer prove that, it becomes much harder to understand why democracies are worth fighting for in the first place.
最开始是在微博上刷到有人说因为美国停止了资金援助，很多在中国的NGO组织面临倒闭。
我到外网上搜索了一下，这篇文章是一个叫做澳大利亚战略政策研究所（英文名Australian Strategic Policy Institute，以下简称ASPI）的机构，于当地时间2025年2月6日在其官网上发布的。
文章的作者在简介中被提到是该研究所的首席中国事务调查员以及分析师。
文章中，该作者大肆抱怨特朗普冻结资金和美国国际开发署的相关项目，致使位于中国香港、台湾的几十家NGO组织受到影响，很多为这些组织工作的人面临失业的风险。
An entire ecosystem of vital China-related work is now in crisis. When the Trump administration froze foreign funding and USAID programs last week, dozens of scrappy nonprofits in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States were immediately affected. Staff are losing their jobs; some organisations face imminent closure due to lack of funding; others are paring back their programming.
整个与中国相关的重要工作生态系统现在都陷入了危机。上周，特朗普政府冻结了外国资金和美国国际开发署的项目，中国香港、中国台湾和美国的数十家非营利组织立即受到影响。一些组织中的工作人员正在失去工作；一些组织因缺乏资金而面临即将关闭的危险；其他组织正在削减项目规模。
然后该作者又在文中表示，这些组织是获取中国信息的“重要来源”，是“支持中国仅存的公民社会”、“为中国人提供了自由发言，以及帮助中国实现民主梦想的平台”。
该作者自称身为一个报道中国超过10年的记者，在“需要某些信息时”，求助于这些组织是一件“理所当然的事情”。
In many cases, these organisations provide our last window into what is actually happening in China. They do the painstaking and often personally risky work of tracking Chinese media censorship, tallying local protests, uncovering human rights violations, documenting the Uyghur genocide, and supporting what remains of civil society in China. They provide platforms for Chinese people to speak freely; they help keep the dream of democracy in China alive. I’m not listing the names of any specific organisations at this time, because some prefer not to disclose that they receive foreign funding. Beijing believes funding that supports free speech and human rights is interference by ‘hostile foreign forces’.
在许多情况下，这些组织为我们提供了了解中国“实际情况”的最后窗口。他们从事艰苦且往往冒着个人风险的工作，追踪中国媒体审查制度、统计当地“抗议活动”、揭露“侵犯人权行为”，并支持中国仅存的公民社会。他们为中国人提供了自由发言的平台；他们帮助中国实现民主梦想。我目前没有列出任何特定组织的名字，因为有些组织不愿透露他们接受外国资助。北京认为，支持言论自由和人权的资金是“敌对外国势力”的干涉。
As a journalist who covered China for more than 10 years, I took for granted the numerous organisations I could turn to when I needed certain kinds of information. But Donald Trump’s foreign spending freeze has revealed how dependent these organisations are on a single government for their survival—and, by extension, how fragile our sources of information about China really are.
作为一名报道中国超过10年的记者，我认为当我需要某些信息时，求助于这些组织是理所当然的事情。但唐纳德·特朗普冻结外国支出的行为，揭示了这些组织对单一政府的依赖程度——以及我们关于中国的信息来源实际上是多么的脆弱。
他呼吁美国必须立即向这些组织提供紧急豁免，如果美国做不到，那么全世界重视民主、人权和真相的政府必须立即介入，找到恢复对这些组织的资助的方法。
The US must immediately grant emergency waivers to China-focussed nonprofits. If the US is not able to do this, governments around the world that value democracy, human rights and truth must step in and find a way to restore funding to these organisations now. It wouldn’t take much; a few million dollars spread across a handful of donor nations would be enough to preserve the research, expertise and networks these organisations represent.
美国必须立即向关注中国的非营利组织提供紧急豁免。如果美国做不到这一点，那么全世界重视民主、人权和真相的政府必须立即介入，找到恢复对这些组织的资助的方法。这不需要花太多钱；从少数几个捐助国分摊的几百万美元就足以保护这些组织所代表的研究、专业知识和网络。
这位作者还给出了一个理由，十分不要脸的声称中国政府用“谎言”让老百姓认为民主制度并不好，为了要驳斥这个“谎言”，就必须要借助那些非营利组织的帮助。
A key part of China’s agenda is to persuade its own citizens and the world, falsely and through deception and coercion, that democratic systems are not better. Beijing claims its system is the best way to guarantee economic prosperity and stability. It claims its one-party system is a meritocracy.
中国议程的一个关键部分是通过欺骗和胁迫，用“谎言”说服本国公民和世界，让他们相信民主制度并不更好。北京声称其制度是保证经济繁荣和稳定的最佳方式。它声称其一党制是任人唯贤后的产物。
It is difficult and time-consuming—though not particularly expensive—to do the work that proves Beijing is lying, and that what it offers is smoke and mirrors. Tools that allow us to uncover the flaws of China’s own system and the actual struggles Chinese people face, directly support the goals, security and resilience of democratic governments.
要证明北京在“撒谎”，证明其提供的只是障眼法，这是一件既困难又耗时的工程。尽管花费不多，但像这些非营利组织一样的工具使我们能够揭露中国自身制度的缺陷和中国人民面临的实际困难，从而直接支持民主政府达成其目标、提升其安全和韧性。
Without the work that China nonprofits do, it will be much harder to show that China’s domestic model of economic and political governance is deeply flawed. If we can no longer prove that, it becomes much harder to understand why democracies are worth fighting for in the first place.
如果没有中国非营利组织所做的工作，要证明中国国内的经济和政治治理模式存在严重缺陷将变得更加困难。如果我们再也无法证明这一点，就很难理解为什么民主制度值得为之奋斗。
总之看下来就一句话，老板你要我干那么多，不给钱可不行，赶紧打钱！
这里再稍微介绍一下这个ASPI，该机构在2020年的时候被新华社曝光过，是一家成立于2001年，坐落于澳大利亚首都堪培拉的智库。
该机构最初的资金来源几乎全部来自于澳大利亚国防部，但在该机构发展起来后，其资金来源的构成就变得比较复杂了。
根据新华社的相关文章，在2020年该组织获得的550万美元的年度预算中，来自澳大利亚国防部的资金比例仅有43%，剩下的资金主要来自于三种不同类别的机构，有像洛克希德-马丁公司、诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司、泰雷兹-雷神系统公司等西方军火巨头；
有像谷歌、甲骨文等西方科技公司；
还有的像北约、美国国务院、英国外交部、日本大使馆等外国政府机构。
据澳媒报道，该研究所曾在获得美国国务院约27万美元的资助后，开始追踪中国和澳大利亚高校间的合作研究，并丑化和诋毁相关研究成果。
我把新华社的这篇文章链接放在这里，大家有兴趣可以看看。
《披着学术外衣的反华“急先锋”——起底澳大利亚战略政策研究所》
至于这些非营利组织的资金为什么会被断，这还得从2025年1月份说起，当地时间2025年1月24日，美国国务院下令全面冻结几乎所有美国对外援助的新资金，只允许例外地继续提供人道主义粮食援助和对以色列和埃及的军事援助。
据介绍，该行政令由美国国务卿鲁比奥发出，通过电报传达给美国驻世界各地的大使馆。该行政令要求迅速叫停美国在全球资助的众多项目，这些项目涉及支持健康、教育、发展、职业培训、反腐败、安全援助等工作，资金规模达数十亿美元。
电报中写道，此次全面冻结资金是必要的，以确保 “拨款不会重复，能够切实有效，并且与特朗普总统的外交政策保持一致”。
电报还称，预计在接下来的一个月内，将制定对所有对外援助项目进行审查的标准，以确保这些援助 “与特朗普总统的外交政策议程相符”。并且在三个月内，预计将完成政府层面的全面审查，并随后提交一份报告，供鲁比奥向特朗普提出建议。
《美国务院冻结几乎所有全球援助项目新资金》
一位美国国际开发署（USAID）前高级官员在24日表示，一些主要的援助组织将该指令解读为对美国资助的全球援助工作的停工令，许多项目可能会立即停止运营，以免产生更多成本。
社区里也有小伙伴发布过相关的文章，按照文章中的说法，自从美国总统特朗普宣布冻结美国对外援助以来，美国国际开发署（USAID）一直处于混乱之中：其网站无法访问，X帐户被暂停，该机构的总部被关闭 ，员工被要求待在家里。
冻结措施生效后，世界各地接受美国援助资金的新闻机构几乎立即开始联系无国界记者组织，表达他们的困惑、混乱和不确定。这些受影响的组织包括支持独立媒体的大型国际非政府组织，如国际公益媒体基金会，以及服务于伊朗和俄罗斯等国家受压迫条件下的受众的小型独立媒体机构。
《特朗普关闭美国国际开发署，断了反华媒体和公知的狗粮》
如此看来，这ASPI估计也是被削减资金，快要活不下去的“倒霉蛋”中的一员吧。
顺便一提，据《纽约时报》于当地时间2月6日的报道，据3名了解裁员计划的人士透露，特朗普政府计划在美国国际开发署全球1万多名员工中，只保留约290人。裁员计划是在6日的一次电话会议上告知各机构领导人的。