Hong Kong’s ‘Water Revolution’ spiraling out of control?
Hong Kong activists urged Taiwan on Tuesday to help promote democracy in the Chinese-ruled city amid its worst political crisis in decades and called for a mass rally before the… Read more »
Category: Dictatorships
Disinformation catalyzing spread of authoritarianism worldwide
Seeking to find a way to wrest control of the narrative, Beijing has stepped up its efforts to sow discord and disinformation about the months-long Hong Kong protests through some… Read more »
Citizen K: Putin’s nightmare? The ballot box
By any measure, the decline of Putinism is indisputable. It was best captured by a poll conducted in May by the government-run Public Opinion Center, which showed that public trust… Read more »
China snuffs out rare beacon of economic liberalism and democracy
An independent Chinese think tank that has served as a rare bastion for liberal economic thought will shut down, citing government pressure as President Xi Jinping ’s campaign to silence… Read more »
Exporting digital authoritarianism: How to build democratic resilience
As Russia, China, and other states advance influence through forms of digital authoritarianism, stronger responses are needed from the U.S. and like-minded partners to limit the effects of their efforts,… Read more »
China’s rights abuses in Xinjiang a ‘bellwether for a shifting global order’
Recent events have stoked alarm among the sizeable Uighur diaspora in Turkey that the country is no longer the haven it has been for decades, The Financial Times reports: Turkey… Read more »
Russia protests show Kremlin ‘failing to keep its system afloat’
Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny today walked out of a Moscow jail after serving a 30-day sentence for violating Russia’s restrictive protest laws. He spoke defiantly to journalists waiting… Read more »
Pro-democracy protests are ‘rattling’ China’s leadership – and the world
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement is rattling China’s leadership – and the world, Newsweek reports. “We may be seeing a tragedy unfolding again right before our eyes,” said Stephen Roach, the… Read more »
Facebook, Google, Twitter and the ‘Digital Disinformation Mess’
With platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, modern-day purveyors of disinformation need only a computer or smartphone and an internet connection to reach a potentially huge audience — openly, anonymously… Read more »
‘Autocracy Now’ – personalized authoritarianism
The leading figures on the world stage today practice a brutal, smash-mouth politics, a personalized authoritarianism, notes Foreign Affairs editor Gideon Rose. Old-school strongmen, they do whatever is needed to… Read more »