> CCP is immune from such things. It does not have to give much damn about its people or even national interests as long as it can stay in power. Absolutely. D

> CCP is immune from such things. It does not have to give much damn about its people or even national interests as long as it can stay in power. Absolutely. Democracy is ideal against tyranny, corruption and mismanagement. As you said, it has kept the Indian government relatively in check, in spite of India's history of Soviet alignment. Russia has long sought to exploit democracy's structural weaknesses by corrupting foreign politicians and journalists. Their attempt to incite a race war in the US, for instance, dates back to the early 20th century. One can argue it never ceased. This century, the efforts became massively more effective with their new cyber capabilities. Even when they can't get an outright puppet elected, they can still put their finger on the scale. At a minimum, they're the new kingmakers. The CCP is insulated from this. Almost paradoxically, this means it can listen to any deals we propose without worrying about blowback from Putin's local political proxies. Unfortunately, Putin's proxies here are the reason we're not proposing any such deals.