How China is crushing the Uighurs
A coalition of 37 human rights and civil society groups today sent a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection urging Acting Commissioner Morgan to issue a Withhold Release Order… Read more »
Category: Dictatorships
Bending the knee to Beijing’s ‘proxy power’. Can democratic values survive in a Chinese world?
If you want to understand what’s happening in the National Basketball Association, turn off SportsCenter and pick up “The Art of War,” argues Ben Sasse, a Republican, who represents Nebraska… Read more »
Late dictator ‘casts a shadow’ over Tunisia’s bumpy transition to democracy
Tunisia’s vote for president on Sunday is the next step in its bumpy transition to democracy after a revolution that triggered the “Arab Spring” uprisings of 2011, Reuters reports. In… Read more »
China and US waging global ‘hearts and minds’ campaigns
As the battle between the US and China over tariffs goes on, an age-old ideological feud is being waged, pitting Beijing’s Communist Party against Washington-style democracy. It’s not a fight… Read more »
First post-Castro crisis: A path toward change in Cuba?
For all the talk of restructuring (aka re-branding) in the face of an acute economic crisis, Cuba’s Communist regime is sticking with the same apparatchiks. “#Cuba maintains current leaders in… Read more »
Fulfilling the promise of 1989: Time for a second liberation of ‘profound renewal’
On the tenth anniversary of 1989, at the brink of the millennium, we could celebrate both the original triumph of the velvet revolutions and great subsequent progress. By the twentieth… Read more »
‘Blunting China’s Sharp Power’: Long arm of Beijing threatens free speech
The true nature of China’s sharp power was on display this week after Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team, posted a somewhat anodyne message of solidarity… Read more »
Houston, We Have a Problem – China
The NBA’s apology for the Houston Rockets general manager’s support of Hong Kong’s protesters is part of a broader trend of U.S. corporate submission to China, James Palmer writes for… Read more »
Systematic human rights violations ‘an everyday occurrence’ in Cuba
A flotilla of shipments from Venezuela gave Cuba some respite this week from crippling fuel shortages in the wake of tougher U.S. sanctions, while Russia’s prime minister pledged during a… Read more »
Cuba’s rebranded dictatorship ‘heading firmly in a more authoritarian direction’
The European Union and Cuba yesterday held their second formal Human Rights Dialogue, under the EU-Cuba Agreement on Political Dialogue and Cooperation. The dialogue is supposed to enhance bilateral engagement… Read more »