Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump have gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the long-standing U.S. program focused on humanitarian aid. But despite cries of outrage from much of the world, there are many in Asia who are happy to see it gone—and not just in China. Many people in the region, including government leaders, believe that the U.S. sponsorship of the nongovernmental organization ecosystem is in truth a vast conspiracy that could threaten their leadership. It is, they believe, the hidden hand behind protests and dreaded “color revolutions.” Paranoia and projection play a big role in this, but there is also a grain of truth.

Across the world, USAID has helped fight infectious disease, feed the hungry, and respond to natural disasters, among dozens of other worthy causes. But many believed this was cover for something more malign.

Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump have gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the long-standing U.S. program focused on humanitarian aid. But despite cries of outrage from much of the world, there are many in Asia who are happy to see it gone—and not just in China. Many people in the region, including government leaders, believe that the U.S. sponsorship of the nongovernmental organization ecosystem is in truth a vast conspiracy that could threaten their leadership. It is, they believe, the hidden hand behind protests and dreaded “color revolutions.” Paranoia and projection play a big role in this, but there is also a grain of truth.

Across the world, USAID has helped fight infectious disease, feed the hungry, and respond to natural disasters, among dozens of other worthy causes. But many believed this was cover for something more malign.

USAID was one target of the funding cuts carried out by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but so were other, more openly ideological U.S. democracy promotion projects. In Cambodia, long-standing autocrat and former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who recently nominally handed power over to his son, posted on Facebook to celebrate the Trump administration’s move to cut off funding to broadcasters such as Radio Free Asia, praising its “courage to lead the world to combat fake news.”

In India, a dubious claim by DOGE that it had canceled a $21 million contract intended to improve voter turnout in India was seized upon by a member the prime minister’s economic advisory council as a sign of something nefarious.

“$21M for voter turnout? This definitely is external interference........

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