Editor's note: The article was first published by China Plus on September 6, 2019. The article does not necessarily reflect the views of CGTN.

The fact that some radical activists in Hong Kong are calling for so-called independence for the city shows obvious traits of a color revolution. The manipulative hand behind these demands has emerged to be the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Yet, no matter how hard it tries to fan the flames of disorder, the NED's attempt to instigate a color revolution in Hong Kong is doomed to failure.

Founded in 1983, the NED claims to be a non-governmental organization, or NGO. However, it was actually set up by an act of Congress and is funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. government. Under the guise of promoting democracy, the NED is clandestinely engaged in color revolutions aimed at toppling the governments of various countries. As the co-founder of the organization Allen Weinstein said, "What we do today was carried out secretly by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 25 years ago."

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the NED has been unscrupulously fanning the flames of disorder in more than a hundred countries and regions, including Venezuela, Ukraine, Myanmar, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria. It was declared an undesirable organization in Russia in 2015 as it was deemed a "threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, its defense capabilities and its national security."

It has now extended its manipulative hand towards the Chinese city of Hong Kong.

It has been funding opposition forces in Hong Kong since 1995 through its subsidiary, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). It had provided assistance worth more than 3.95 million U.S. dollars by the beginning of 2015. There is substantive evidence showing that the NED funded the illegal "Occupy Central" movement in Hong Kong in 2014. 

During the recent violence in the city, the NED colluded with local radical forces in an attempt to launch a color revolution, paralyze the SAR government, seize administrative power, and destroy the "One Country, Two Systems" concept. This became evident when leading figures of the opposition camp including Martin Lee Chu-ming and Nathan Law Kwun-chung made provocative speeches at the NED headquarters in Washington in May. 

The NED also helped Nathan Law Kwun-chung, who was under-performing academically, to gain admittance to Yale in return for what he has "contributed" to the chaos in Hong Kong. The NED has been recruiting the so-called backbone of "Hong Kong independence" in exactly the same way that it has tried to recruit agents to instigate color revolutions in other countries and regions.

Color revolutions have no place in Hong Kong. China will not allow any activities to harm its national sovereignty, challenge the authority of the central government, undermine the Basic Law of Hong Kong SAR, or use Hong Kong as a base to destabilize and infiltrate the Chinese mainland. Hong Kong's seven million residents will not just stand by and watch their home being dragged deep into an abyss of the type created in other lands by color revolutions.

Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong. Should external forces like the NED continue to instigate chaos beyond the SAR government's control, Beijing will most definitely cut off any and all of the manipulative hands reaching out to Hong Kong, without hesitation and with all the means at its disposal.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)