Are China and Russia enemies of democracy?

Question

Both countries have voted against sanctions being instituted against Mugabe's regime, which is slaughtering the citizens of Zimbabwe.

China issues them with the arms to rule by murder and both countries hold vast business ties there.

Is China especially guilty, provng it still holds human life in contempt.

I, for one will not support the Olympics

Answer 1

who cares about your opinion.

Answer 2

Yes they are.They are bad governments.We are making a mistake in dealing with them.

Answer 3

With China I am not sure but I assume that Russia voted against sanctions politically. Several days ago, an agreement on an American radar in the Czech Republic was signed. This radar will be able to monitor the military positions of the Russian army up to the Ural. This has evoked a natural dissatisfaction of the Russian government. For the Russians, as well as for the U.S., some remote country such as Zimbabwe is unimportant and they way their decisions under their own interests.

There is no doubt that China doesn't respect human rights of its citizens and there can be no word about democracy. But is democracy something perfect? I don't think we need democracy as a necessary condition to improve our lives. To establish democracy, there has to be an appropriate level of development and an appropriate way of thinking in the society. You can't establish democracy somewhere where the monarch is believed to have his power from the God. That is, I assume, in the kingdoms in the Middle East and it was in Russia until the beginning of the 20th century. However, among the Russian people the idea of an emperor being something like a son of God remained much longer and to some extent, it remains in the people's minds even now. That's why it was possible to establish totalitarian communism there. That's why they still don't have the pure desire to elect their leaders on their own and are likely to regard the President as a father of nation. They voted for Medvedev, because Putin recommended him, not because they were convinced that he was the best candidate for them.

Although China and Russia don't respect human rights like they are respected in Western Europe and there is no real democracy in these countries, I don't think they are something like "enemies of democracy". We shouldn't think that "democracy" and "human rights" are the same. And moreover, democracy doesn't necessarily have to be the best tool to have a better quality of life.

I am not anti-American but I think that the United States should stop acting as a self-invited protector and spreader of democracy. What is best for America, does not necessarily have to be the best for the whole world.

Answer 4

Not any more than Bush with his making democracy look bad.

Answer 5

Yep, and we're selling our souls to them.

Answer 6

Well the Olympics are supposed to be separated from politics, but you bring up a good point. When it is too much and they can no longer be separated is a fine line. A lot of people don't know the 1936 Olympics were held in n**i Germany, and the original torch lighting ceremony is actually a tradition started by the n***s.

Perhaps they vote against sanctions because they think sanctions will do more harm than good. In a way they're right and in a way they're wrong. Yes it would weaken the government and regime, but it would also weaken the country itself which would do little to help the people already suffering. If the man is already killing many of his own people I doubt something like sanctions would do much to deter him from more aggression.

China I think is warmer to democracy than Russia. Russia has seen firsthand what rampant democracy and capitalism can do when left unchecked. Of course these two things aren't the same but in the Russian mind they are linked, and really can you blame them? A majority of the country suffer while a few hold all the wealth, organized crime is rampant, the military is a shadow of its former self, the population is declining, debt is all over the place, and the infrastructure is in disrepair. The situation was generally the same under the USSR, but is even worse now, or at least it was until recently.

China is not so much an enemy of democracy as it is growing closer and closer to the West and its economy is a pseudo-capitalist/communist hybrid already. In order to keep on the good side of its foreign investors it tries very hard to keep a positive image. But I do agree that its policy of supplying arms and its own track record with human rights is sometimes deplorable. Tibet being an example.

Don't forget that except for the USSR, no other country has supported as many dictatorships as the USA. Depending on how you look at it the USA could be the biggest enemy of democracy in the world? Our own track record with supporting dictatorships in the world is nothing to be proud of.  

I didn't mean for this to sound anti-American, but its simply to provide an insight into how someone else might look at it and how an "enemy of democracy" is subjective to someones own biases.