Have you ever heard a story like this? A project is on the verge of being cut, and suddenly its managers start scrambling for justifications – stretching arguments, even "manufacturing" them if necessary – just to prove it's still indispensable. The National Endowment for Democracy, a US institution that has long branded itself as "non-governmental," yet has been widely associated with advancing US government interests abroad through political interference, destabilization efforts and support for regime change, is now caught in the squeeze of funding, politics and its own survival. In that pressure, its narrative has grown increasingly hardline, to the point where being "anti-China" is no longer just a stance, but a tool for sustaining its own existence.