Leaked Files Reveal U.S. Funded
Nepal’s ‘Gen Z’ Movement to Counter Chinese and Indian Influence: Report
Leaked documents obtained by The Grayzone revealed the US funnelled $350,000 via NED and IRI
to stir Nepal’s ‘Gen Z’ movement, resulting in regime change, a coup to curb
Chinese and Indian influence.
Core Allegations
·
Leaked documents
(via The Grayzone) claim the US covertly funded Nepal’s
‘Gen Z’ youth movement to engineer regime change and counter Chinese and
Indian influence.
·
Funding was channelled through the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the International Republican Institute
(IRI).
·
A programme called “Yuva Netritwa: Paradarshi Niti” (Youth
Leadership: Transparent Policy) received $350,000 (2021–2022) to train
activists in protest organization, messaging, and digital mobilisation.
Trigger Event
·
In September 2025, Nepal’s government
blocked Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter under new digital rules.
·
Trained youths allegedly launched violent
protests, armed with rifles and using the Jolly Roger flag (popular in
youth uprisings globally).
·
The unrest left 76 dead, forced
PM KP Sharma Oli to resign, and installed an interim leader via a social
media poll.
US Role & Contradictions
·
Western media framed the protests as democratic,
but leaked files suggest US-backed mobilisation went beyond civic education,
potentially arming youth.
·
Raises questions about Washington’s credibility
as a “champion of democracy,” given the alleged support for overturning an elected
government.
Money Trail
·
Beyond the $350,000 core programme:
o USAID
(2022): $402.7M agreement, with $158M earmarked for governance/civil
society by 2025.
o NED
FY2024 grants: $65K for youth civic engagement, $135K
for advocacy/reform campaigns.
·
Observers warn the network aimed not just
at protests but at grooming future politicians aligned with US interests.
·
Similar IRI programmes in Bangladesh
allegedly preceded a coup in 2024.
Geopolitical Context
·
Nepal’s strategic position between China
and India makes it vital to the US Indo-Pacific strategy.
·
IRI reports described Nepal as central
to encircling Beijing with friendly governments and potential US military
footholds.
·
NED’s history of covert regime influence
(previously CIA functions) is cited as precedent.
·
The unrest in Kathmandu is portrayed as
the final stage of a US-orchestrated push for a compliant Nepali government.
Key Takeaway
The leaked files suggest Washington used
youth mobilisation as a tool of geopolitical engineering, turning Nepal’s
Gen Z movement into a proxy for Indo-Pacific strategy, raising serious questions
about democracy, sovereignty, and foreign intervention.
Nepal's violent ‘Gen Z’ was allegedly funded
by the United States to ensure regime change in the country that borders with neighbours
like India and China. Leaked documents obtained by The Grayzone
revealed shocking truths about the covert US operation linked to ‘Gen Z’ in Nepal,
funding and turning ordinary Nepali students into a ‘Gen Z’ shadow army for
a rapid‑fire coup.
According to the internal documents accessed,
the United States, through its National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the International
Republican Institute (IRI), funnelled hundreds of thousands of dollars into a programme
called “Yuva Netritwa: Paradarshi Niti” (Youth Leadership: Transparent Policy),
which promised to teach young activists “strategies and skills in organizing protests
and demonstrations”. In practice, the training manuals allegedly went far beyond
civic education, offering lessons on public speaking, strategic messaging, resource
mobilisation and even the use of digital tools to broadcast dissent.
As per The Grayzone reports, the project ran from July 2021 to June 2022
with an initial budget of $350,000. It claimed that the motive was to create a network
of activists who could “become an important force to support US interests” by pressuring
Nepali decision‑makers and leading to reforms favoured by Washington. The
documents stated that the funding was to create a network of vibrant youth who could
become “an important force to support US interests” by pressuring Nepali decision‑makers
and steering the country away from the orbit of its powerful neighbours, China and
India.
Social Media Blockage Stirred ‘Gen Z’ Protest
The obtained papers drew a stark connection
between the Kathmandu government’s order to block social‑media sites and the
‘Gen Z’ protest. It claimed that when the Kathmandu government blocked Facebook,
YouTube and Twitter in September 2025 for failing to register under new digital
rules, the trained youths were ready. Within days, a wave of Gen Z protests
erupted, turning violent almost immediately as protesters brandished semi‑automatic
rifles and waved the Jolly Roger flag from the anime One Piece, a symbol
that has appeared in recent youth uprisings across the Philippines, Indonesia and
Mexico.
In their reports, the workshops were open
to both party members and unaffiliated youths, and each session was recorded, transcribed
and analysed for “leadership potential”. The leaked files show that the IRI drew
inspiration from the so‑called ‘Enough is Enough’ protests that occurred in
Nepal in the summer of 2020 in response to the government’s Covid‑19 policies.
Furthermore, as per the disclosure, for
the institute, those protests proved the ability of young people “to shape and play
a significant role in Nepali politics” and to extract concessions from the government,
a success that the NED subsidiary was keen to sustain and “capitalize on”. The institute
therefore decided to begin providing the country’s youth with “opportunities and
platforms to develop extensive, sustainable networks to effectively advocate for
common concerns and be successful champions for democratic change supported by the
US.”
Series Of Events Raised Questions On The US Role
The Nepal unrest left at least 76 dead,
forced Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign, and ushered in an interim
leader chosen by an informal social‑media poll with fewer than ten thousand
votes. The unrest was largely characterised in Western media as a peaceful and democratic
uprising against an authoritarian government, while videos of the crisis showed
protesters armed with rifles rampaging through the cities.
The series of events that was revealed
in the documents raised tough questions about the United States’ self‑proclaimed
role as a champion of democracy. Furthermore, it is claimed that if the mentioned
allegations are true, Washington has not only funded a civic‑education project
but has also helped to arm and mobilise a generation of young Nepalis to overturn
an elected government, a major contradiction to the principles it claimed to uphold.
The following report delved deeper into the alleged money trail, the training curriculum,
and the geopolitical calculus that turned a youth movement into a tool of regime
change.
Money Trail
Beyond the $350,000 core programme, other
US grants added to the picture, as per the Grayzone reports.
A May 2022 $402.7 million development objective agreement with USAID
earmarked $158 million for governance and civil‑society work by early 2025.
NED’s FY 2024 Asia grant list included a $65,000 ‘Promoting Youth Civic Engagement
and Movement Building’ award and a $135,000 ‘Strengthening Youth Participation in
Advocacy and Reform Campaigns’ grant, which was to build youth centres and digital‑media
training.
The observers warned that the US‑backed
youth network was not just about street protests, but it was also designed to groom
future politicians who could run for office and embed US‑aligned policies
in Kathmandu. Similar IRI programmes in Bangladesh are cited as having helped pave
the way for a coup in August 2024.
Why Nepal Matters To Washington
The leaked files reportedly made clear
that Nepal’s position between China and India made it a prize in the US Indo‑Pacific
strategy. IRI’s own reports described the country as core to Washington’s motive
of encircling Beijing with friendly governments and possible US military footholds.
The programme, therefore, framed its work as a way to counter Chinese and Indian
influence by cultivating a generation of Nepali youths who would “use their power
for policy intervention” and “have a say in national decision‑making”.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED),
since its founding in 1983, has quietly financed comparable projects worldwide to
undermine sovereign regimes, a practice its own founder once bragged about, saying
that much of what the organisation does was previously carried out in secret by
the CIA. Leaked papers allegedly indicated that the violent unrest that erupted
in Kathmandu in September 2025 may have been the final stage of a Washington‑orchestrated
push to install a leadership in Nepal that aligns with America’s Indo‑Pacific
agenda.
The accessed documents further claimed
that as the Himalayan region becomes ever more interconnected and India tilts further
toward China and Russia, the US national‑security establishment would clearly
favour a more compliant government in the strategically positioned country of Nepal.
Nepal’s strategic position between the two giant neighbouring countries made it
a prized pawn in Washington’s Indo‑Pacific strategy, and the leaked reports
described the Himalayan nation as core to a plan to encircle Beijing with pliable
governments and possible US military footholds.