The pandemic has accelerated the emergence of authoritarianism and mutual cooperation complicates democracy
Amy Slipowitz, from the human rights NGO, points out that the main reason for the decline of democracy in the world is that authoritarian leaders are working together. And in that cooperation there is a regime par excellence: China. “It lives an authoritarian drift from which both its citizens and the rest of the world suffer. Because it retaliates against countries or companies that criticize its exploits with the Uighurs or with Hong Kong. Moreover, it cooperates with other dictatorships, regardless of their ideology,” he explains. Such as the military coup in Thailand and Myanmar, the Taliban regime, Venezuela or the most corrupt countries in Africa.
Human Rights Watch’s Andrew Stroehlein adds that China’s rise is particularly worrying because “unlike what is happening with Russia, its economically efficient model serves as an example to many other countries in the South,” something María Silvestre, director of of Deustobarómetro, also agrees: “It is dangerous that economic competitiveness takes precedence over human rights.”
Silvestre looks with particular concern at cooperation between Russia and China, which has been tepid despite the invasion of Ukraine. However, he believes that “the demonstrations that have taken place against the zero covid policy, which have forced the Chinese government to change its strategy, show that it is difficult to maintain authoritarianism with an economic opening.”
For this reason, Slipowitz underscores the importance that propaganda has for Beijing on a global level, penetrating deeply into the countries in its sphere of influence and even into sectors of Western society. However, he believes that we should also avoid “talking about a new axis of evil.”
Source: La Verdad
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