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> The tragedy of democracies is that it does not really encourage democracies elsewhere. This is actually false. The reason Russia and China care so much about

> The tragedy of democracies is that it does not really encourage democracies elsewhere. This is actually false. The reason Russia and China care so much about Ukraine and Taiwan, is because they worry having a functional democracy next door may destabilize their own regimes.

jacquesm 6y ago
Russia cares about Ukraine for another reason: strategic access to the Black Sea.
sergeykish 6y ago
Russian government use external enemy to shift attention from internal problems. All state owned media attention is on Chechnya, Abkhazia, Crimea. "The might of the russian troops"... Tsarism never ended, it just shifts masks.
dntbnmpls 6y ago
> The reason Russia and China care so much about Ukraine and Taiwan, is because they worry having a functional democracy next door may destabilize their own regimes. China cared about Taiwan when it was a authoritarian dictatorship for most of its history. I don't think it's a matter of government but a matter of lost territory. Using your logic, the north was worried about the functional democracy of the confederacy. Even if taiwan adopted communism, it wouldn't matter because it's a matter of territorial integrity. Meaning, it's just as lightly that we'd let south carolina secede than china would allow taiwan to leave. As for russia, considering that it's a democratic republic, I don't think they are too worried about that. What they are worried about is the geopolitical issues with ukraine - especially foreign interference in ukraine.
distances 6y ago
Russia has no shortage of top-notch democracies next door.
- JumpCrisscross 6y ago
  > Russia has no shortage of top-notch democracies next door Correct, but none with a Slavic majority. Similar with China. Lots of democracies. None with mostly Han Chinese. The threat to both comes from the disabling of their argument that democracy doesn’t work for “their” people. It’s difficult for Russia to define a set of people that encompasses its population but excludes Ukrainians. Same for Beijing with respect to Hong Kong and Taiwan.

jacquesm 6y ago

Russia cares about Ukraine for another reason: strategic access to the Black Sea.

sergeykish 6y ago

Russian government use external enemy to shift attention from internal problems. All state owned media attention is on Chechnya, Abkhazia, Crimea. "The might of the russian troops"... Tsarism never ended, it just shifts masks.

dntbnmpls 6y ago

> The reason Russia and China care so much about Ukraine and Taiwan, is because they worry having a functional democracy next door may destabilize their own regimes. China cared about Taiwan when it was a authoritarian dictatorship for most of its history. I don't think it's a matter of government but a matter of lost territory. Using your logic, the north was worried about the functional democracy of the confederacy. Even if taiwan adopted communism, it wouldn't matter because it's a matter of territorial integrity. Meaning, it's just as lightly that we'd let south carolina secede than china would allow taiwan to leave. As for russia, considering that it's a democratic republic, I don't think they are too worried about that. What they are worried about is the geopolitical issues with ukraine - especially foreign interference in ukraine.

distances 6y ago

Russia has no shortage of top-notch democracies next door.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> Russia has no shortage of top-notch democracies next door Correct, but none with a Slavic majority. Similar with China. Lots of democracies. None with mostly Han Chinese. The threat to both comes from the disabling of their argument that democracy doesn’t work for “their” people. It’s difficult for Russia to define a set of people that encompasses its population but excludes Ukrainians. Same for Beijing with respect to Hong Kong and Taiwan.