Newsweek (June 4)
Thirty years ago, “the brutal scenes of troops from the People’s Liberation Army firing live ammunition on civilians peaceably calling for political reforms at Tiananmen Square shocked the world.” The outside world’s response was largely based on the prevailing wisdom that economic development supports human rights. Today, “you’d be hard pressed to find any serious analysts who still believe economic prosperity has led to a more liberated China. Instead, China has been emboldened to infringe on the rights of its own people at home and abroad, cracking down on burgeoning civil society and activists, and undermining international human rights institutions as a means of subjecting its people under its control.”
Tags: Activists, Brutal, China, Civilians, Economic development, Emboldened, Human rights, Infringe, PLA, Political reforms, Tiananmen Square, Troops
New York Times (October 8)
Donald Trump is basically giving dictators the “green light.” The President “has made it clear that the United States will no longer even pretend to stand up for liberal values globally.” On top of that, there has “never been an American president as enthusiastically pro-Saudi as Trump” so it is no wonder that “Saudi Arabia feels emboldened.”
Tags: Dictators, Emboldened, Green light, Liberal values, Pro-Saudi, Saudi Arabia, Trump, U.S.
