Leaked Files Reveal US Funded Nepal’s ‘Gen Z’ Movement To Counter Chinese And Indian Influence: Report

Kathmandu: 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.

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