Category: Dictatorships

Does Vietnam have carte blanche for crackdown on dissent?

     

Human rights advocates are expressing concern over an intensified crackdown on dissent in Vietnam. Some analysts suggest that the Communist regime is emboldened by perceptions that it is a strategically… Read more »

Jamal Khashoggi, MBS, and the future of U.S.-Saudi relations

     

In the wake of the alleged state-sponsored disappearance and killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, the latest in a series of troubling events from the Kingdom… Read more »

Human rights in China on a ‘downward trajectory’ under Xi

     

Protection of human rights in China has been on a “downward trajectory, by virtually every measure” since President Xi Jinping assumed power in 2012, a U.S. congressional study concluded Wednesday…. Read more »

As autocrats undermine democracy, can West counter the threat?

     

Efforts to directly confront China and Russia over their anti-democratic actions are unlikely to yield results and may further bolster their collaboration, according to analysts Andrea Kendall-Taylor and David Shullman. There are,… Read more »

China to employ AI & sharp power in ‘risky play’ for global leadership

     

China could overtake the United States in artificial intelligence technologies capable of disrupting every aspect of society, the leaders of a House panel said in a report released Tuesday. Artificial… Read more »

Did trade war help dissident Liu Xia win freedom?

     

Writer and human rights advocate Liao Yiwu says the US president’s trade war with China may have helped Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, win her release,… Read more »

Time to sanction Iran’s slush fund (and its brutal custodian)

     

A former presidential candidate in Iran runs a massive business conglomerate that helps Tehran suppress dissent at home and export terror abroad, notes Tzvi Kahn, a Penn Kemble fellow at… Read more »

How India challenges China model

     

India’s status as the world’s largest democracy and its non-Western identity have buttressed the argument that democracy is a universal idea, says a leading democracy practitioner.  In addition, the fact… Read more »

Vietnam: time to realize John McCain’s unsecured legacy

     

Senator John McCain’s legacy is secure in terms of US-Vietnam reconciliation, but it falls to us to realize his commitment to realizing democracy in Vietnam, writes Dr. Cu Huy Ha Vu (right),… Read more »

Why is Venezuela collapsing but Maduro still standing?

     

Venezuela has pledged its oil reserves as backing for a digital currency dubbed the “petro,” which leftist President Nicolas Maduro launched in February. This month he vowed it would be the… Read more »